House Bill 907: Childcare Teachers Wage Incentive Program

February 22, 2024April 3, 2024 Bill Tracker

Latest Action

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On April 2, the Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committee failed to vote on HB 907, causing the bill to die in committee.

Explanation of the Bill

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The childcare industry, which has always been precarious, faces an ongoing market failure that may reach a crisis point as pandemic funds that kept the industry afloat expire. Among other consequences, this market failure has led to teacher shortages due to, in part, low wages and unaffordable prices for families. 

House Bill 907 passed the House Workforce Development Committee with a committee substitute. The new version of the bill intends to study the childcare teacher shortage, how to increase the supply of affordable childcare, and any other childcare related issues the committee deems necessary.

The study committee is composed of seven people, including

• a member of the Senate appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, 
• a member of the House appointed by the Speaker of the House, 
• The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS), or his designee, 
• The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Services (MDES), or his designee, 
• a representative of the childcare provider community, 
• a representative of the economic development community, and 
• a representative of the business and industry community.

Presumably, only two positions would have direct childcare knowledge and experience: the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, or his designee, and one representative of the childcare provider community. It is unclear if a representative of the childcare provider community would be a childcare provider or an organization that works with childcare providers.

It is also worth noting that there are no researchers appointed to the committee either through the use of PEER or the direct appointment of a researcher to the committee. 

Original Bill 

Originally, HB 907 created the Childcare Teachers Wage Incentive Program to address this problem. The goal of the program was to provide a stipend to childcare teachers to increase their salary.  

The program would have been housed at the Office of Workforce Development, with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) acting as the fiscal agent. It is unclear if the bill intended to name the Division of Workforce Development and Partnerships within the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which traditionally administers or licenses childcare centers, or if it intended to name Accelerate MS, which is also known as the Office of Workforce Development.

The Childcare Teachers Wage Incentive Program would have provided an unspecified amount as a wage incentive for 2,000 eligible childcare teachers on a first-come, first-served basis. The stipends would not have been targeted to specific areas. Childcare teachers were to be considered eligible if they

• Work for a center or home-based program that is in good standing with the DHS and participates in its Quality Support System;
• Work directly with children aged 0 to 3 for at least 30 hours per week; 
• Are a permanent employee of the center; and 
• Have been employed at the center for at least six months and will remain employed for at least three months.

Teachers who work for public schools, Head Start, or make more than $20 per hour would have been ineligible. As of 2023, MDES estimated there to be over 5,000 childcare teachers in Mississippi who were making an average salary of $10.30 per hour. Essentially, most, if not all, childcare teachers would have been eligible for a stipend, but only 2,000 would have been able to actually receive a stipend. 

The bill also set aside 5% of its appropriation for administrative costs and required an annual report of the program. 

The original version of the bill was very similar to a program that DHS is currently operating with  $83.4 million of its American Rescue Plan Act Discretionary Funds to provide similar stipends to childcare teachers. Those funds expire in September 2024.