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Cassie Franklin
Mayor | Everett, WA

ARP: Everett WA, Aims to Expand Access to Child Care Facilities

Idea Category: Education | Funding Source: American Rescue Plan

Mayor Cassie Franklin’s plan recommends investing millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan to expand access to childcare and early learning opportunities in Everett, Washington. The city could utilize up to $3 million of the ARP money to repurpose city-owned facilities to catalyze childcare and early learning investment and offerings by local organizations. Franklin’s plan also supports childcare and early learning programs through the city’s Everett Forward Grant (EFG) program, which is funded with ARP dollars. Grant awards will support low income childcare, co-op preschool opportunities, the launch of a social enterprise training program for childcare workers, and the construction of a playground that allows a church to open its facility to weekday childcare.

Additionally, in February 2022, Mayor Franklin signed a ten-year lease of a portion of the Everett transit station to provide year-round tuition-free pre-school to sixty 3 – 5-year-olds from low-income households. Franklin estimated that the provider is making a tenfold match of the city’s $700,000 investment, and she stressed the tangible economic difference that the partnership will make on the households served.