Client: Bright Horizons Childcare

Relevance to DOA: Demonstrates how our Grant Administration services help entities greatly increase their funds received and maintain the integrity of critical programs.

CohnReznick has experience in grant application, administration, reporting and compliance of complex, federally funded programs. One such example is our work supporting Bright Horizons Childcare in their efforts to apply for and receive COVID-19 grant funding ensuring their nationwide childcare centers are safe, remain open, and are staffed with highly qualified teachers. Bright Horizons operates 700+ childcare facilities across the country in over 35 states. Starting in March 2021 CohnReznick was contracted by them to create transparency and consistency for funding opportunities, and to perform centralized oversight and administration of funds for Bright Horizons. To date we have assisted in their pursuit of 72 unique state funding opportunities and submittal of 6,103 applications for economic relief.

Issue

As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, several federal appropriation acts have included specific funding for childcare providers, and each state can add additional provider requirements or limit eligible costs in addition to the myriad federal requirements. Prior to contracting with CohnReznick, individual Bright Horizon centers were applying for various funding options on their own, creating liabilities in reporting, reconciliation and overall communication.

Action

CohnReznick partnered with Bright Horizons to design a centralized administration process to identify funding opportunities in each state, aid in the creation of a steering committee and present prioritized funding opportunities for steering committee consideration, prepare and track grant applications on behalf of local centers, reconcile funding received assuring proper accounting, develop SOPs to document relevant processes, perform post-award grant activities, establish consistent reporting and participate in internal audits. In short, we provide a consistent and reliable source for fund application.

Impact

Thanks to our grant administration efforts, to date Bright Horizons centers have received $110,635,231 in available COVID-19 economic relief funding. This has greatly helped these individually-owned, critically-needed childcare centers be reimbursed for costs incurred to mitigate the spread of COVID19, get reimbursement for losses due to absences and closures, provide training to teachers, increase their staff wages, and provide retention bonuses for experienced staff who have agreed to stay – much needed assistance for a critical and necessary social service.