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Child Care is in the News. Let’s Keep the Momentum Going.

Posted on April 8, 2022

Senator majority leader M. Teresa Ruiz, joined by colleagues, advocates, stakeholders and providers unveiled a $350M comprehensive bill package which will ensure New Jersey's child care industry can meet the needs of its working families. This announcement got lots of attention in the news.  Now let's get moving and keep the momentum going. Sign up to join the campaign to #reimaginechildcare. If you are interested in responding, via a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed, to any of the articles below in your area, please contact us at advocates@acnj.org.

Let's get the job done!

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N.J. child care centers took a hit during the pandemic. They now serve 4,700 fewer kids | NJ.com | May 6, 2022

Supporting moms, mental health, making childcare more affordable and accessible | NJ Spotlight Chat Box | Apr. 28, 2022

What’s Good for the Kids Is Good for the Economy | U.S. 1 is Princeton's | Apr. 27, 2022

Back child-care bills now, lawmakers urged | NJ Spotlight | Apr. 22, 2022

Child care a big reason 1 in 5 N.J. mothers quit work during pandemic. Top senator has $350M solution. | NJ.com

Ruiz champions package of child care bills | NJ Spotlight

Package of NJ bills aims to make child care services more affordable, accessible | NorthJersey.com

Ruiz unveils $350M child care package that could 'create the framework for other states to copy' | Politico

Lawmakers unveil $350M plan to improve child care, eliminate ‘day care deserts’ | New Jersey Monitor

Package of Early Childcare Bills in Trenton to Offer Daycare Tax Credits, All-Day Kindergarten | Tapinfo

New Jersey lawmakers push for improved child care access in effort to reduce labor shortage | Philly Voice

Senate Democrats have $350M plan to improve child care in NJ | NJ 101.5

NJ child care industry seeks help for post-pandemic recovery | NJBiz

Senator Ruiz Proposes Legislative Package of Bills Investing $360M in Child Care

Posted on April 5, 2022

ACNJ applauds the efforts of State Senate Majority Leader Ruiz to #ReimagineChildCare

Today, State Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D- 29) introduced a comprehensive package of bills that would invest $360 million for child care in New Jersey. Legislative proposals in the package, co-sponsored by Senator Joe Vitale, Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez and Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham, include expanding family eligibility for tuition assistance, extending measures to stabilize child care program funding and incentivizing employers to support child care. The proposal also includes the creation of a new Department of Early Childhood. ACNJ is particularly interested in the proposal to expand child care for infants and toddlers, which continues to be the most difficult for families to find and afford.

Senator Ruiz believes "[t]hese investments will not only benefit our parents and our child care providers but also our entire state. Access to affordable, high-quality child care improves outcomes and pays dividends, every dollar invested offers a $4-$9 return in individual and community benefits. As we face worker shortages across industries, reducing the cost of child care will allow more parents to return to the workforce at a time when we need it most. This multipronged approach works to tackle this issue from every angle to ensure the maximum impact on our economy and our children.”

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the longstanding cracks in the foundation of New Jersey’s child care system, and while funding through several federal child care initiatives has helped to address the most immediate problems, better solutions and greater state support are needed to build the accessible, affordable, equitable child care system of the future for New Jersey families, programs and staff.

ACNJ commends Senator Ruiz for her leadership in sponsoring this critically important legislation. Child care is essential for families and for our economy and is the educational opportunity for our youngest children. This is an important first step toward building a strong New Jersey early care and education system, but it will take an organized advocacy campaign with every stakeholder, including members of the child care community and parents, playing a role to bring about change. Sign up for the Reimagine Child Care Campaign to get the latest updates on child care issues, and to make sure your voice can be heard!

Over the coming months, ACNJ will provide information as the legislation is introduced on steps you can take to communicate with your legislators and Governor Murphy on how important these bills are to parents, programs and of course, the children.

Join Us As We #ReimagineChildCare
What's In The Legislative Package?
  • S.2475 – Ruiz/Cunningham: Establish the Department of Early Childhood to provide focused and integrated development of 0 to 5 care and education.
  • S.2476 – Ruiz/Vitale: Provide funding for the expansion of infant and toddler seats by 1,000, reimbursed at $22,000 per seat, prioritizing providers in communities identified as child care deserts, areas with high percentage low-income families, as well as those that align their child care center with high quality preschool.
  • S.2477 – Ruiz/Cruz-Perez: Require new preschool programs or seat expansions to use private providers for at least 50% of their preschool slots.
  • S.2478 – Ruiz/Vitale: Extend the enrollment-based payment model currently set to expire on June 30, 2022. The bill would extend the program for three years, with a report on the impact at the end of this year and the end of the three years.
  • S.2479 – Ruiz: Provide tax incentives to employers who provide child care in their facilities, reimburse parents for their child care expenses or contract with private providers so their employees can enroll their children in those child care programs.
  • S.1099 – Vitale/Ruiz: Allows a gross income tax credit for a child care staff members who have been employed by a child care provider or worked as a registered family day care provider for a minimum of 1,260 hours for a six month period during the taxable year.
  • S.2480 – Ruiz/Vitale: Extend child care subsidies to families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty line.
  • S.2465 – Vitale/Ruiz: Require the Department of Human Services to establish a quality-based reimbursement system for registered family day care providers participating in Grow NJ Kids.
  • SJR.79 – Ruiz/Cunningham/Vitale/Cruz-Perez: Designate the first full week of April as the “Week of the Young Child” in New Jersey.

Parents and Providers Testify on Challenges of Child Care at FY2023 Budget Hearings

Posted on March 29, 2022

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Will you stand up for babies who need child care?

The need for child care was at the forefront of the FY2023 New Jersey Assembly Budget Committee public hearings. Parents described their struggles to find child care for their babies, while child care providers talked about the difficulties of finding staff to meet parent demands. Classrooms remain empty without teachers to lead and educate.

It's time to tell state legislators to make an investment to support the workforce that care for our youngest learners.

Email your legislators.

Read testimony from parents and providers about the challenges of raising a baby in New Jersey, finding child care, keeping business doors open and the consequences when babies are left behind.

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Jill Cimafonte, Director, Temple Emanu-El of Westfield’s Early Childhood Education Program
Child care provider

"And just last week, a young mother called me begging (yes truly begging) me to accept her baby into our program because she needed to return to work. The center where she had planned to send her baby kept pushing back her start date and ultimately, she was turned away because they were unable to find teachers to staff the room. My heart broke for this woman, but I did not have anything to offer her."

Good morning. My name is Jill Cimafonte. I have been the Director at Temple Emanu-El of Westfield’s Early Childhood Education Program for the past 23 years.

In September 2018, we opened our first full day infant classroom with 8 beautiful babies and continued to expand our full day program every year. This school year our program is filled, serving over 140 children ages 3 months-Kindergarten with many attending from 8am-6pm and we are already filled for the 2022-23 school year with an extensive waiting list.

The pandemic has brought an influx of young families to the area and in many 2 parent households, both parents must work to afford the exorbitant housing costs. Even though there are waiting lists all over town, my colleagues and I are skittish to open additional rooms because of the inability to find quality childcare professionals. For the past 2 years, we have had to close classrooms for days, weeks, and months at a time because we did not have enough teachers to staff the room. Our toddler room had to end at 4:30pm every day (instead of 6pm) for the first 3 months of this year because of our lack of staff. And just last week, a young mother called me begging (yes truly begging) me to accept her baby into our program because she needed to return to work. The center where she had planned to send her baby kept pushing back her start date and ultimately, she was turned away because they were unable to find teachers to staff the room. My heart broke for this woman, but I did not have anything to offer her.

Although many families in our community do not qualify for state subsidies, we too are experiencing a severe crisis in hiring and retaining qualified early childhood teachers. This, in turn, has profoundly impacted our families’ ability to perform their jobs reliably and successfully.

Read her full testimony
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Laura Palescandolo, ACNJ Parent Leadership Council
Mother of a six- and two-year-old

"Due to maternity leave that was both limited in time and low in financial benefits, I returned to work after just six weeks, which was not nearly enough time to be home with my son. As soon as I did, my milk supply took a hit -- and I struggled to pump enough milk to nourish my son. Breastfeeding challenges were compounded by another huge stressor– modifying my work schedule to catch an earlier train to be able to pick up my son from aftercare by 6:00 PM, at which time late charges apply, on top of the over $15,000 already spent on annual tuition."

My name is Laura Palescandolo. I am a wife and a mother of two living in New Providence, NJ. I have lived in NJ for almost 39 years and work for a bilateral chamber of commerce. My son and daughter are ages 6 and 2, respectively, which means that I have been navigating the learning curve of motherhood for six years. During this time, despite a strong support network, I have encountered numerous challenges -- most notably, the high cost of childbirth, limited maternity leave, the struggle of breastfeeding, and the lack of affordable childcare with hours that accommodate full-time working parents.

When I gave birth to my son in 2016, I never imagined that a standard hospital delivery, free of complications and partially covered by my employer-based Aetna insurance, would cost me $8,000 out-of-pocket. Being a first-time mother and caring around-the-clock for a newborn is overwhelming, even with family support, and the costly hospital bills were inequitable and added a level of stress I did not anticipate. Childbirth is a natural life process, with thousands of babies born in the United States every day, and should not be a huge financial burden upon parents. Due to maternity leave that was both limited in time and extremely low in financial benefits, I returned to work after just six weeks, which was not nearly enough time to be home with my son. As soon as I did, my milk supply took a hit -- and I struggled to pump enough milk to nourish my son. Breastfeeding is beyond difficult, even in ideal circumstances, and returning to work meant I had to carry a breastpump to/from work on the train every day to express milk in a less efficient manner, in a "private" room in which people would inevitably walk in by accident, while enduring the stress of being away from my desk multiple times a day and having to excuse myself from meetings to pump. The challenge was enormous, and only through commitment and dedication was I able to provide breastmilk to my son through the age of two-and-a-half. If I were in a different occupation, in which I had to work a shift or be “on the floor,” for example, none of that would have been possible. Breastfeeding challenges were compounded by another huge stressor -- modifying my work schedule to catch an earlier train to be able to pick up my son from aftercare by 6:00 PM, at which time I would be charged $10 for every 10 minutes of being late, on top of the thousands already spent on tuition. The quality of care and instruction my son has received is top-notch, but the annual cost is over $15,000, excluding aftercare and material fees, which adds another level of financial hardship.

In April 2020, amidst the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I gave birth to my daughter at home with two nurse-midwives, which cost $5,500 out-of-pocket. No part of the cost was covered by insurance; yet I felt like we were saving because it was less than what my son's hospital birth cost us out-of-pocket. Because the stay-at-home order had me working from home, I was able to continue working, and I opted out of taking maternity leave and did not have to consider childcare. That is not to say that life was easy -- my husband had been laid off as a result of the pandemic and my son was back home with us. Most days, it was (and still is) difficult to work while trying to care for little ones, but the pandemic afforded us the silver lining of being home with our children -- particularly our newborn -- and alleviated some of the hurdles we would have otherwise encountered in regard to parental leave, breastfeeding, and childcare. But it should not take a pandemic to alleviate those stressors. In August 2020, I was reduced to part-time by my employer as a result of pandemic cutbacks. While the financial adjustment has not been easy, the reduced hours have alleviated some of the overwhelming stress I felt in trying to juggle too many jobs at once as a “full-time, working, stay-at-home mom” (which is what has driven many mothers to leave the workforce entirely as the pandemic has progressed).

I hereby call upon you to invest more in families with young children. Put a cap on out-of-pocket childbirth expenses, so that no family has to struggle to afford giving birth. Broaden insurance coverage to not just include pre/postnatal care from doctors, but pre/postnatal care from midwives. Extend maternity leave to six months and increase financial benefits for parents. Standardize childcare hours to ensure every facility can accommodate working parents. And lastly, make childcare a public good -- as it is the foundation of the education of our youth. Let us work together to create a culture that prioritizes children and lays the foundation for families to thrive.

Read her full testimony
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Rose-Anne Uwague, ACNJ Parent Leadership Council
Mother of a five- and seven-year-old

"I grappled if whether the weight of child care and the health of our children should rest solely on the caregivers. I'm happy to help in any way I can. The question is if the government should be called upon to level the playing field and provide access to basic needs, and I believe you should. So I'm calling on my legislators to reimagine child care and health care and the quality of life for working families by funding the following: High-quality, free or low-cost child care for all children regardless of parental employment status."

Watch her testimony (0:59:56)

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Habibah Johnson , ACNJ Parent Leadership Council
Mother of a four, six, nine, and 11-year old


Like many working families in New Jersey we paid a lot of out of pocket childcare fees.
Current statistics report that in New Jersey a month of infant care at a child care center costs families an average of $1,082. While childcare subsidies are helpful, it is time to make childcare free for all, to give every parent the opportunity to receive the necessary care for their child to thrive and so they can work. Going through what my family went through for so many years, I want to make sure no parent will ever feel the stresses of having to pay for childcare. We need the strongest investments in our caring economy possible and we need it now. "

Hi my name is Habibah Johnson I am a parent in Hudson County.
My kids are 11, 9, 6, and 4. This means for the last 11 years I have been navigating a couple of essential supports for working parents: paid leave and childcare. Which has at times has made me feel blessed and scared and everything in between.
My journey first began with having to take leave after the birth of my first child, I was lucky that shortly before they were born, New Jersey had passed a paid family leave program and we took advantage of it. When it came to daycare, we found a licensed private in-home daycare that calmed my new parent fears and made our family feel secure. It was unfortunate when we could no longer afford the cost and had to transition back into the overwhelming uncertainty of navigating through the bureaucracy of the childcare system.

Fast forward five years and three kids later we found ourselves facing one of the biggest challenges our family has faced to date. My 36-year-old husband who was relatively healthy discovered a heart condition in the most devastating way. When my daughter was three weeks old, I found my husband unconscious on the kitchen floor at 3am. He had suffered a heart attack and stroke. I had an ample amount of unpaid family leave along with New Jersey’s six weeks of paid leave for bonding and caregiving. If I worked at another job or in another state I could have had nothing.

Of course, caring for him and a newborn was not easy -- neither was the strain of having to figure out how to make ends meet after those six paid leave weeks were over.
And for us, in terms of childcare, having three kids at the time and my husband still in the hospital, I knew safe, consistent childcare that offered a flexible schedule, that would accommodate my very hectic life, would be critical to my family and my own mental health. I found myself putting my younger kids in a state funded daycare. The biggest setback was the very high turnover of staff who would often share their worries of not making enough money to provide for their own families. There were too many bittersweet goodbyes of teachers, who at times felt like family, who were helping me to raise my children. I often thought of transferring to a private daycare, but with my husband’s inability to work as he recovered, that was out of reach.

Many other moms I knew would talk about all the luxuries of private facilities like
smaller class sizes with highly-trained educators, better facilities, and even higher quality food. This often left me feeling like the childcare system was unfair, and there needed to be a change.

Currently, all of my children are enrolled in our local public school. And my husband recovered and is doing well. We made it through.

Like many working families in New Jersey we paid a lot of out of pocket childcare fees.
Current statistics report that in New Jersey a month of infant care at a child care center costs families an average of $1,082. While childcare subsidies are helpful, it is time to make childcare free for all, to give every parent the opportunity to receive the necessary care for their child to thrive and so they can work. Going through what my family went through for so many years, I want to make sure no parent will ever feel the stresses of having to pay for childcare. We need the strongest investments in our caring economy possible and we need it now.

Read her full testimony

Read ACNJ's Testimony and recommendations by Cynthia Rice, ACNJ Senior Policy Analyst.

Read ACNJ Testimony

20 Years of Federal Court Oversight of New Jersey’s Child Welfare System Ending

Posted on March 23, 2022

Posted 03/23/2022

Mary Coogan, Esq., ACNJ Vice President
Mary Coogan, Esq., ACNJ Vice President

The federal court oversight of New Jersey’s child welfare system will finally be ending after 20 years, according to the federal court monitor Judith Meltzer, president of the Center for the Study of Social Policy. Ms. Meltzer appeared with Marcia Lowry, attorney for the plaintiff, and Department of Families and Children Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer, before the Honorable Stanley R. Chesler on March 22, having reached an agreement. The final exit will occur no later than June 2023.

Ms. Meltzer stated, “Today’s Agreement and proposed Exit Plan is due to work carried out over many years by talented and dedicated state leaders to create a child welfare system that protects children, preserves families and promotes the well-being of New Jersey’s children and families. The proposed Exit Plan and Agreement memorializes many of the original Settlement Agreement’s commitments, foundational elements and dedication to quality improvement into proposed state legislation.” Click here to read the joint press release.

Beyer indicated that “[t]oday’s achievement is the result of more than two decades of reforms and transformation initiated and implemented by a workforce committed to helping New Jersey’s families be safe, healthy and connected. Now, the Department of Children and Families is a nimble, data-driven, prevention-focused, and family-centric agency, as well as a national leader in child welfare and family well-being best practice.”

The next step is the passage of legislation introduced yesterday to amend the law governing the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and establish caseload standards for child protection workers. S2395, sponsored by Senate Speaker Nick Scutari and A3707, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin, assigns many of the monitor’s functions to the legislatively authorized Staffing and Outcomes Review Subcommittee (SORS) of the Task Force.

Click here for the latest Monitor’s Report