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Maryland boosts eligibility for child care subsidy

Capital - 8/7/2018

Maryland has doubled how much working families can earn and still qualify for child care vouchers, a move advocates say will open up high-quality care for thousands more families.

Beginning this month, families of four with incomes of up to $71,525 can apply for the state's Child Care Subsidy Program. The previous income limit was $35,702 for a family of four.

"This opens it up for so many more needy families," said Crystal Hardy-Flowers, who runs the Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center in West Baltimore.

Hardy-Flowers said that over the decade she has run the child care center, she has seen parents wary of accepting raises or disappointed to forego overtime to make sure a small bump in pay doesn't cause them to lose their vouchers. Others have been shut out altogether because they made too much to qualify but not enough to afford the $480 to $820 that Flowers charges a month for newborns to school-aged children.

"This is a big relief: you can work eight, nine hours and know your children are well cared for. It's a burden off," she said. "Sometimes a dollar or two more an hour would knock them out of the system."

The move is the latest in a series of changes that include eliminating a waiting list and increasing the value of the vouchers.

The Department of Education announced the new income eligibility guidelines last week, raising eligibility to 65 percent of the state median income. Under the new levels, a parent with one child can earn up to $48,637, from $24,277, and families of six can earn as much as $94,413, from $47,127.

Bill Reinhard, an education department spokesman, said he could not predict how many more families would access the subsidy but the agency anticipates it could be 10,000 or more.

Credit: By Yvonne Wenger - The Baltimore Sun