In January 2025, Building Bright Futures submitted its annual report on monitoring the implementation and impacts of Act 76, Vermont’s historic investment in its early education system.
Read the 2024 Report on Act 76 Monitoring Read our Plain Language Summary of the ReportThe report includes key findings from our work with partners across the early childhood system whose work and data collection enable us to understand the impact of Act 76’s policy changes on families, young children, early educators, and the early childhood system. The report elevates both implementation and outcome successes, as well as challenges to continue to monitor.
Here are some of the findings:
- Around 550 families no longer have a copay due to the increase in financial assistance provided by the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) under Act 76.
- In 2024, more child care businesses opened (60) than closed (40) for the first time since at least 2018.
- Over 1,200 families are accessing CCFAP that previously would have been ineligible for any assistance paying for child care.
2024 was a significant year for implementing the historic investments and policy changes of Act 76. Early data and sentiment from families and the early childhood field suggests that the law is beginning to have the types of impacts that were intended; more families in Vermont are receiving assistance paying for child care, programs are receiving higher rates to care for children, more child care programs are opening than at this time last year, and families are applying for child care via the new online application in droves.
Vermont’s Child Development Division administered a volume of program changes previously unimaginable and did so with very few reported challenges and delays. While monitoring the law’s impacts and addressing a number of continued challenges remain critical, overall the success of Vermont’s progress towards increasing access to and affordability of early education should be celebrated.
