2025 State of Early Childhood Presentation
On May 29, 2025, the Early Childhood Collaborative of Southington hosted their annual “State of Early Childhood in Southington” presentation and breakfast. Thirty-three people attended representing the Southington Public School district, elected officials, businesses, non-profit organizations, funders, ECCS board members, childcare providers, healthcare, Parent Ambassadors and other parents.
The Opening slideshow that displayed during breakfast, highlighted the ECCS’s work over the year. View the Presentation slides.
ECCS Board Chair, Rachel Wardwell, started the meeting with introductions.
Births and Kindergarten Start Age
Joanne Kelleher, Executive Director of the ECCS, gave updates about the birth rates in Southington and how that compares to enrollment at Southington Public Schools. See presentation slides #5-9. We talked about how the change to the kindergarten start date impacted the enrollment for the current kindergarten class.
UPDATE as of 6/5/2025: At the breakfast we also discussed the proposed legislative language under C G A – House Bill 7009 sections 8 and 9 that eliminated the option to request a waiver to the kindergarten start date by 2027. This bill passed the House, but was not called by the Senate, and so there is no change to the waiver process. Districts will continue to be required to offer screenings to parents of children born in the fall who request a waiver to the September 1 kindergarten start age.
Additional demographic information is available in the ECCS Community Plan.
An attendee asked about the total town population. Per the Connecticut Town Profiles by CTData Collaborative. the 2019 CERC Town Profile shows that the American Community Survey (ACS) town population estimate for 2013-2017 is 43,817 and the 2020 Census figure is 43,791. In the 2025 Town Profile, the ACS estimate for 2019–2023 is 43,575.
Childcare Availability
See presentation slides #17-23. Although staffing issues and affordability continue, Southington has seen an improvement in availability of spots at childcare centers due to the opening of new centers and a change in ratios. But the number of licensed family childcare homes has dropped from 25 in 2020 to 20 this May with another set to close in August. For preschool programs, the number of schools remained the same, but programs had to adjust their age cut-off or expand their offerings for PreK5 students who couldn’t start kindergarten. One licensed summer camp is not opening this year, and a new one has started. Most summer camps still have openings.
There are State several legislative proposals around supporting childcare which need to be decided before the legislative session closes on June 4th.
Per the Early Childhood Facilities Landscape Analysis Report from LISC, three childcare centers in town applied for their 2023 facilities grant, but none were funded. Another round of facilities funding is expected in the next year.
Partner Updates
These initiatives were discussed, see presentation slides #10 to 16.
- Early Childhood Consultative Partnership
- Family Resource Center of Southington
- Southington Public Library
- Bread for Life’s Summer Lunch program which will be offered at DePaulo Middle Schoo this year.
We discussed the inconsistencies between the free and reduced lunch rate at the Southington Public School district which is about 26%, the 5,000 summer lunches provided by Bread for Life and the 123 children enrolled (as of February 2025) in the Care4Kids childcare subsidy program. We felt all of these numbers should be higher.
Transition to Local Governance Partner role
Joanne gave an overview of the Early Start CT initiative and the role of the Local Governance Partners (LGP), see presentation slides #10 to 16. As the ECCS conducts a community needs assessment in 2026 as part of the LGP work it will be important for stakeholders to help identify family need such as low-cost, quality childcare.
The OEC has more details at Early Start CT, including the Resources page which has the slides and a recording from the May 20th OEC LGP sharing presentation.
Emmanuel shared how stakeholders and parents can get more involved by joining the new LGP Community Table advisory group or the ECCS board of directors (contact Joanne if interested), making a donation and sharing information.
Strategic Planning
As part of the transition to becoming an LGP, the ECCS has hired Carol O’Donnell, Principal of the Duncannon Group, to help with strategic planning. See presentation slides #33 to 35. Carol reviewed the strategic planning process, summarized the themes she heard from the stakeholders she already interviews and then reviewed the next steps. Attendees were asked to provide input on four questions. More information about the ECCS Strategic Plan will be shared in the fall.
Thank you to everyone who attended and provided their feedback. This free event was funded by a grant from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood as administered by the Connecticut Children’s Collective (CTCC).
