RISE Scholarships & Incentives

RISE Child Care Scholarships - At Capacity RISE Provider Incentives RISE Teacher Supports - At Capacity

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear how essential safe and high-quality early education is for our economy to function. In March 2020, child care programs in Franklin County were forced close. Nearly 1 in 6 remain closed two years later, and half of those that are open report not being able to cover expenses, with 17 percent not sure they can remain open for three months. Many of those are programs are ones that serve children on Publicly Funded Child Care, located in some of the lowest asset neighborhoods in Franklin County.

On March 24, 2022, Franklin County announced an unprecedented $23 million multi-year investment to strengthen our early learning systems. Franklin County RISE takes an whole system approach, offering an array of grants and incentives to increase the accessibility and affordability of high-quality early learning for families; incentive child care providers for maintaining high-quality, expanding hours and participating in Publicly Funded Child Care; and offers financial and housing assistance for early learning educators who are chronically under paid. Franklin County RISE is an innovative partnership between Franklin County and Future Ready Five, which administers the programs with support from Action for Children. The funds are made possible thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act.

RISE Child Care Scholarships - At Capacity

UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming response and success of the Franklin County RISE Child Care Scholarships, we have reached our current program capacity, and scholarship applications are now closed. We recognize how disappointing this news may be and are thankful for your understanding and patience with Franklin County RISE. We aim to support as many families as possible, and remain committed to exploring every avenue to improve access to quality childcare for our children and strengthen the entire early childcare system.

If you have already submitted an application, please know that your application is very important to us, and we will maintain it in the order in which it was received. If additional scholarship funding becomes available, we will contact your family and childcare provider to process your application.

If you have not already, please consider exploring the additional resources available via our Franklin County RISE partners Future Ready Five for Kindergarten Readiness support and Action for Children for Family and Parent Support Programs.

You may also qualify for Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC) or the new Ohio Child Care Choice voucher. Click here to determine if your income meets the eligibility requirements and learn how to apply.

Access to affordable, high-quality child care remains a barrier for many parents, especially mothers, who are trying to return to the workforce. While Publicly Funded Child Care is available for families at the lowest income bracket, for too many working families, affordable, quality child care remains out of reach.

This fund provides scholarships of up to $9,000 annually for a minimum of 600 children each year. Families must complete a joint application with their child care provider. Children are eligible from birth up to the first day of kindergarten.

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RISE Provider Incentives

RISE Provider Incentives fall in into three categories and are available to help strengthen licensed child care centers as well as Family Child Care (FCC) homes.

Publicly Funded Child Care Incentive Grants: Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC) is critical to ensuring children from low-income families have access to quality early learning. Licensed child care providers that enter into new PFCC agreements with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will receive up awards of up to $5,000 for centers and $2,500 for FCC homes.

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Step Up To Quality Incentives: Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) is Ohio's Quality Rating & Improvement System for child care and early education programs. Centers and FCC homes can receive an incentive award of $21,000 and $10,500, respectively, each year for increasing their a SUTQ star rating by at least one star.

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Nontraditional Care Incentives: Child care is often not available for parents who need it, many of whom are employed in the manufacturing, retail, construction, food service, or health sectors or as first responders and work non-traditional hours. Child care centers that enroll children during nontraditional hours (6 p.m. – 6 a.m. on weekdays and/or weekends) are eligible for incentives awards of up to $10,000 annually and FCC homes are eligible for up to $5,000.

**UPDATE: Due to overwhelming response, we are not currently accepting new applications for Nontraditional Care Incentives.**

RISE Teacher Supports - At Capacity

UPDATE: Thank you for your interest in the Franklin County RISE Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program. Due to the overwhelming response, we have reached our current program capacity, and ERA applications are now closed.

We recognize how disappointing this news may be and are thankful for your understanding and patience with Franklin County RISE. We aim to support as many educators to offset their housing burden as possible and remain committed to exploring every avenue to improve access to quality child care for our children and strengthen the entire early child care system.

If you have not already, please consider exploring these additional housing resources that may be of assistance: Franklin County PRC Emergency Assistance, Tenant/Landlord Mediation services, and Columbus Legal Aid.

Emergency Rental Assistance:
Early childhood educators are among the lowest paid professionals with average wages ranging from $11.39 an hour for assistant teachers to $12.22 an hour for lead teachers. These salaries fall below the living wage for a single adult without children and put them at serious risk for housing cost burden (paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing).

Franklin County committed $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to create a dedicated Emergency Rental Assistance fund to support early childhood educators struggling with housing costs.

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