Advocates complain Maryland’s scholarship program for child care is broken as parents and providers are left in the dark for months without response or payment for services. Child care providers joined parents and community organizers at the Homewood Early Learning Center in Baltimore City on Wednesday morning to bring attention to issues with the Maryland State Department of Education’s Child Care Scholarship Program. Tyesha Morris, Owner of Ty’s Tiny Tots, said that her Southwest Baltimore child care center mainly serves low-income families and the majority of students rely on state scholarship funds.

“By not getting paid on time, we are not able to have high efficiency quality programs, able to pay our bills on time and pay our staff,” Morris said.

The center is expected to prepare children for a successful academic future but it’s a challenge when payments from the state are unpredictable.

“Although we're not a large center. We matter, family providers matter,” she said.

The Maryland State Department of Education did not immediately provide comment for this story.

Baltimore nonprofit Maryland Family Network is pushing the state to improve and streamline its child care scholarship program to make it more accessible for parents and reduce the burden for providers statewide.

Parents are supposed to have a response from the state in 30 days but some families have waited nearly four months on scholarship applications, according to a report commissioned by the Maryland Family Network and other organizations.

State payments are often delayed to providers for students in the scholarship program which is stressful for providers.

“Fixing this process would give an economic boost to some of our state’s poorest communities, said Laura Weeldreyer, executive director of the Maryland Family Network.

Advocates recommend that the state could offer an online system that tracks applications, scholarship status and pending payments to providers. Beyond that, advocates suggested that hiring scholarship program caseworkers, more resources for families who don’t speak English as their first language or even temporary vouchers for students pending final approval.

Del. Jared Solomon, who represents District 18, said that the new law is meant to lower barriers for both parents and providers. Parts of the law went into effect in July and other sections will become effective July 2023.

“We're going to be one of the few states in the country that is leading on making it as easy as possible for families to get the care and support that they need,” Solomon said.

The HB995 requires a process for granting presumptive eligibility for families seeking child care and a specific timeframe for the state to distribute scholarship payments to providers.

Weeldreyer said the current process is outdated and disorganized and creates roadblocks for families.

“All of this unintentionally widens the gap of what is already an inequitable system of early care and education in Maryland,” she said.