Howard County launches Early Head Start Program to expand childhood education access

BALTIMORE -- Howard County Executive Calvin Ball last week announced the launch of the county's first Early Head Start program to expand early childhood education opportunities.

The $750,000 initiative is a partnership between the Community Action Council of Howard County and Howard Community College that will open five new Early Head Start classrooms for children two or younger.

Children whose families earn up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level will be eligible for this new Early Head Start program, Ball said.

"Since the COVID-19 pandemic, childcare options for infants and toddlers across our nation have diminished and become more expensive," Ball said. "While nearly 20,000 children under the age of five live in Howard County, there are only approximately 10,000 childcare spots available to our families."

The initial funding will support the centers for two years, and the county said the state's Blueprint for Maryland's Future initiative will fund the operating costs of the classrooms.

CAC said it denied enrollment to 70 children last fiscal year because they were under the age of three, while 35 families were denied because their income exceeded Head Start's income limits.

"It is not an overstatement or exaggeration when we use the word 'crisis' in discussing the pressing need for childcare in Maryland," Maryland State Delegate and Howard County Delegation Co-Chair Jessica Feldmark said in a statement. "Lack of access to affordable quality childcare is one of the biggest challenges many families face, and as a result, it is one of the biggest challenges many employers face as well."

HCC's CLC opened in 2000, and closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The community college announced plans to reopen its learning center in partnership with CAC after it was awarded a $1 million Childcare Access Means Parents in School grant last year

Three classrooms will be at HCC's Children's Learning Center in Columbia and two new classrooms at CAC's Ellicott City Early Childhood Education Center

Ball also announced a $22 million investment this year to renovate Faulkner Ridge Center to expand universal pre-K services and the FY25 Capital budget included an additional $1.1 million to continue the center's renovations.

The center would create 260 new seats for universal pre-K and will allow the County to make full-day pre-K available for four-year-olds up to 600 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the office of the county executive.