‘That’s a problem’: Councilor grills health commissioner over childcare workforce grant funding

Executive Councilor John Stephen pointedly questioned officials from the Department of Health and Human Services during this week’s meeting about why a childcare workforce grant program was not funded. 

That exchange was prompted by an unrelated contract that was up for debate on Wednesday, which would give more than $1.2 million to a company that helps oversee the state’s childcare quality improvement program, Granite Steps for Quality. The program helps the Department of Health and Human Services provide professional development services and coaching to childcare providers. 

Stephen said he had two “major concerns” with the contract: One is that less than 20% of the state’s childcare programs participate in Granite Steps for Quality, and the other is that the state has not funded a workforce grant program that would help all childcare providers. 

“Can you explain to me, is it your priority to continue the professional development and not help these childcare facilities with workforce grants that they need or workforce assistance and help?” he asked Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver.  Advocates and childcare providers have been seeking clear answers from department officials and lawmakers about the status of the workforce grant funding since the beginning of the legislative session. 

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In the state’s biennial budget, a line item was included to provide $7.5 million a year for “the purpose of financing recruitment and retention bonus benefits and grants for New Hampshire child care employers.” The program, which started in 2023 and used state general funds, has helped employers recruit and retain qualified childcare providers by providing additional funds to pay salaries or increase wages, employee bonuses and benefits, training, and more, including new-employee sign-on bonuses. 

Due to budget shortfalls, the Legislature tried to use the state’s extra Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, funds for the program. The appropriation was “contingent” upon approval or a waiver from the federal government. 

That has not happened since the budget was signed into law. The federal government gave a vague answer in an email last October, but department officials have testified that the Administration of Children and Families continues to deny the state’s request to use TANF funds. 

Pro-childcare lawmakers in both chambers have proposed bills to fund the program with state general funds. Bills have either been amended to require the Department of Health and Human Services to go back to the federal government again for answers, changed to remove an attempt to use general funds, or tabled as a way to avoid finding an alternative funding source. 

Weaver, along with Associate Commissioner Chris Santaniello, told the council the department “invest[s] in child care providers in different kinds of ways,” one of them being the Granite Steps for Quality contract, in which funding is required for the state to be in compliance with its Child Care Development Fund plan. They said hands-on coaching is “critical” for providers, and said that the department does not “have the authority or resources to provide those one-time grants.”

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The childcare workforce grant started as a pilot program.

Santaniello and Nathan White, chief financial officer for Health and Human Services, said the department had already transferred the maximum allowable amount of TANF funds to help prevent a waitlist for the N.H. Child Care Scholarship Program. Over the department’s “multiple conversations” with the federal government, the takeaway for officials was that “we’re not allowed to do that.” 

“There is no more TANF money to transfer,” Santaniello said. “There are no waivers available, and we have maximized. We don’t have the dollars to move.” 

Weaver said that while they all agree within the department that “workforce development is important for childcare providers,” they are constrained by the rules and regulations governing their budget. The department would “indirectly” invest in staff recruitment and retention through funding professional development. 

“If you have trained staff that are getting coaching and they’re successful in the job, they’re more likely to stay,” Weaver said. “Part of our ask here with this contract is [to be] able to continue that, and I just want to reiterate that we didn’t come up with this idea ourselves. Part of this is working with all of the provider community for what they wanted to use these dollars.” 

Stephen continued to press department officials on whether the $15 million will ever be released to providers. 

White said that when department officials and House lawmakers were working on the budget, they “didn’t contemplate” that all of the TANF funds had been “obligated” for the scholarship program, and that they are no longer available. 

“Why did they even put that in a line on the budget? If they would have known that there’s no chance of getting that? … Nobody’s told me in writing that we can’t [get a waiver],” Stephen said, visibly frustrated. “Now [you] are asking to fund these dollars for professional training and we’re not going to give this. We’re not going to be able to fund $7.5 million that was promised in Fiscal Year ’26. That’s just a problem.” 

The budget states that the Department of Health and Human Services should incorporate in its biennial appropriation request “an amount necessary to fully fund the child care workforce programs.” One of the funding bills was amended to remove that appropriation language. It currently awaits Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s decision.  

The Granite Steps for Quality contract was later tabled because of Stephen’s concerns and criticism from Councilor David Wheeler about the contractor’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.