HELENA — Childcare providers across Montana can now apply for millions of dollars in new grant funding. The goal is to help providers support their staff, better serve children, and make more childcare available.
Learn more in the video below:
The Montana Early Childhood Account was created through House Bill 924 during the 2025 legislative session, with a historic $10 million allocation. Now, the program is offering three initial grants, with a total of $8.5 million available.
One of those is the flexible workforce support grant, which can help with employee benefits, compensation, childcare costs for staff, and professional development. Something Larch Early Childhood Care has applied for.
“We would use it towards giving our staff members immediate pay raises; what they do is so important for Helena and the next generations,” Christine Miller-Fitzpatrick, the owner and director of Larch, said.
Funding like this is something providers say helps childcare stay stable in communities.
“It is everything. We have 33 families at large, and that is a big part of the Helena workforce; being able to have reliable childcare that they know is not going to be gone at any point in the week is really important,” Miller-Fitzpatrick added.
Another grant focuses on training and resources to better support children with developmental differences, and a third provides up to 10-thousand dollars to help providers open or expand infant and toddler care. Something Exploration Works is launching in January.
“Things we need to buy for a start-up with infants are a lot; you have to have the cribs, the changing tables, we have to do some renovations to be compliant with licensing,” Shannon Thomas, the Wonder Lab Preschool director at ExplorationWorks, said.
Providers say although it is not a long-term solution, this funding fills an immediate gap in infant care.
“This is great, just like supporting startups for infant care and under-2-year-old care because that is a huge, huge need in Helena and in Montana.”
The application window runs through Monday, October 26th, and information about these grants and the ongoing work of the MECA grant can be found here.
