Over the past year, federal funding for children and youth has become more precarious due to increased political turbulence and abrupt shifts in federal spending priorities. Further, in the face of economic uncertainties, state and local budgets are tightening as policymakers brace for lower revenue projections, which are intensified due to expired federal relief and recovery funding.

While recent legal rulings and state legislatures are attempting to provide funding assurances to the service providers who support children and youth, the current unpredictable funding environments have already resulted in the closure of vitally needed early learning centers, exacerbating burdens to working families seeking care.

During this period of funding uncertainty, local communities are proactively addressing the budgetary gaps caused by shortfalls in federal and state funding. For instance, when the longest government shutdown in the United States’ history occurred last year—and disrupted federal funding for critical nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)—local leaders across the country addressed the impending hunger crisis by utilizing funding from their local budgets to safeguard operations for local food banks and to minimize financial harm to local residents. 

Local leaders are uniquely positioned to secure new local funding that is more immune to the political activities at the state and federal levels. In addition to championing the creation of voter-approved children’s funds to provide dedicated sources of funding, local leaders have an opportunity to identify new and innovative local funding strategies to help sustain and expand investments in children.

Emerging Strategies to Fund Programs and Services for Kids

The local landscape is ripe with opportunities to support children and the providers who care for them. Some communities have pursued policy changes like liberalizing zoning and land use rules for child care facilities and streamlining permitting processes to benefit home-based providers. While others have pursued cradle-to-career funding through collaborations with local banks, economic incentive agreements, tax increment financing districts, and the leveraging of public assets.

We are seeing these strategies deployed in rural, suburban, and urban communities of all political affiliations:

• Lincoln, AL: City officials reduced parking requirements for child care facilities and they now allow child care centers to operate in industrial zones, subject to health inspections.
• Fremont, CO: The community is utilizing a portion of its opioid settlement funds to help the Boys & Girls Club of Fremont County purchase and expand its facility where the organization operates after-school programs.
• Battle Creek, MI: The city approved a 50-year, 4% payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for a project that will include affordable housing and a child care center.
• Tulsa, OK: The city council approved an ordinance to remove the requirement for home-based providers to have commercial-grade sprinkler systems, alleviating providers of an extreme cost burden that threatened their operations.
• St. Louis, MO:  The city earmarks revenue from parking tickets to seed $50 into college savings accounts for eligible kindergarteners.

You can learn more about these examples and others by viewing our newly released map below which catalogs innovative local funding mechanisms and policy changes across the country.

Even though federal and state funding sources remain uncertain, local leaders can leverage  distinct policy levers to generate local funding for children and youth. If you are a local leader interested in learning more about these local emerging funding and policy opportunities, contact us at childrensfundingproject.org/contact-us to find out how we can help.

Ashley Richardson is senior manager, emerging funding strategies, at Children’s Funding Project.