Nurse-Family Partnership’s Post

Every child, regardless of background, deserves access to affordable, high-quality early childhood education. This means taking action to improve the existing child care system by advocating for new state and federal legislation. We must transform our ideal policies into real, sustainable change that is tangible and universal.   Where do we start? WeVision EarlyEd, an initiative of our sister organization, the Bainum Family Foundation, highlights four ways we can shift our messaging to align our advocacy with what families want in a reimagined child care system. Find it here: https://lnkd.in/evgipnrQ

During Spring 2024, Dr. Kimberly D. Lucas and graduate students Khaing May Oo, Zoe-S Madu, and Innocentia Botor Ashai collaborated with Dr. Wendy Robeson and her undergraduate team at Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College to produce a new report, "Understanding ‘Post-Pandemic’ Family Child Care Providers: Why New Providers Entered the Field and Why Others Left." This report provides new information on Massachusetts' key groups that make up the early childhood workforce: family child care providers. The team is spending their fall and winter sharing the report with policymakers, politicians, and philanthropy. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gsH2QV5P

The Growing Opportunities for Family Child Care (GOFCC) in Maryland represents a pivotal response to childcare challenges intensified by COVID-19. As the pandemic exposed the system's vulnerabilities, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided essential support with $40 billion funding. However, the sector faces a potential crisis with the recent expiration of these funds in September 2023, threatening the closure of 70,000 childcare programs and disproportionately affecting women and families relying on these services. GOFCC prioritizes high-quality, family-oriented childcare, resonating with parents' desire for accessible, culturally aligned care. This approach is key to nurturing children's development through their cultural and ethnic traditions. To tackle the looming crisis, a systemic, long-term investment strategy is needed, focusing on universal, affordable, high-quality childcare. The strategy includes: Professional Development for Providers: Create tailored programs for family childcare providers, addressing their unique challenges and schedules. Financial Model Overhaul: Reevaluate and redesign financial models for workers, exploring sustainable options like public-private partnerships. Culturally Responsive Quality Measures: Develop quality measures that incorporate diverse cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds, with input from varied stakeholders. Collaboration among policymakers, educators, and community leaders is vital to ensure the sector's resilience and growth. This collective effort can lead to quality, inclusive care for all children, and a brighter future for the professionals in this field. Maryland's GOFCC demonstrates the societal benefits of such investments. For more details, refer to the following sources: For more details, refer to the following sources: Training Family Child Care Providers in Baltimore - The Annie E. Casey Foundation: https://lnkd.in/eMpXVGce Child Care Cliff: 3.2 Million Children Likely to Lose Spots with End of Federal Funds - The Century Foundation https://lnkd.in/eqF3vRtc A Program That Saved Child Care For Millions Is Expiring. What Now? - Vox https://lnkd.in/evyDQWed

Empowering Providers. Advocating for Change and Enriching Futures! There has been a tremendous need over the last several years to bring together and connect the 500 * licensed family child care providers in San Mateo County with each other and with the broader systems infrastructure. Oftentimes family child care educators work individually with very little outside guidance or support. When Covid 19 hit, it became abundantly clear that the lack of CONNECTION, infrastructure, information, the fragmented funding streams, poor compensation and the challenges of running a home-based business needed to be addressed and tackled, and that those individuals best suited to finding solutions to these challenges are the family child care educators themselves. Current research indicates that family child care educators who engage with their local family child care organization have been shown to have more confidence in their ability to provide quality care and support to the children and families they serve. The San Mateo County Family Child Care Organization is critical to stabilizing and expanding family child care programs by providing the connection that joins individual family child care educators to each other and the broader systems infrastructure, such as funding, policy making, resources and community programs.

Our children are precious. And so are the people who care for and educate them. So let's pay them like the professionals they are! Please join me in writing to Governor Hochul and your NYS legislators to make the proper investment in the child care workforce: https://lnkd.in/ep--a-Cr Right now the NYS child care workforce makes less than 96% of all NYS occupations.   Because of these low wages, many child care jobs go unfilled, leading to programs unable to enroll new children.   Caring for and educating our young children is not babysitting. It is demanding work, calling for skill and knowledge and patience. The people who do this important work, generally women and often women of color, should be compensated like the professionals that they are.   The Council's new Child Care Survey reveals that Westchester teachers in child care centers earn 44% less than entry-level kindergarten teachers.   The Governor proposes another one-time workforce recruitment and retention initiative, using unspent federal funding. This will not fix the child care staffing crisis.   Time to invest NYS $ in a permanent child care compensation fund that reflects the true value of these indispensable educators.  

Employers across North Carolina know that improving access to affordable, high-quality child care isn't just the right thing to do for our state's children and families. It's also the right thing to do for our workforce and our economy. Check out what North Carolina employers like Eli Lilly and Company, Truliant Federal Credit Union, BIOMILQ, Columbia Forest Products, and Greene Construction, Inc. are saying about the need for investments in child care access below. https://lnkd.in/eb6X2YrC

This is an important read from Propublica.

More than 14.4 million—67.8 percent—of children in the U.S. have all available parents in the workforce. But a dire lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care often forces families to make difficult decisions between working or caring for their children. This recent overview from the Center for American Progress highlights how several states are responding to the end of COVID-19 pandemic funding from the U.S. government. While many states have passed new legislation or identified new investments to bolster child care, North Carolina as a state is continuing to struggle. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eHD4HYiJ

How do we ensure families have access to child care that is accessible and meets their needs? First, consider where there is misalignment between families' child care priorities and preferences and their child care experiences. New research from my brilliant colleagues, including lead author Ashley Hirilall, share a new method for exploring this misalignment. For example, findings from their research highlight that many families receiving subsidized child care in Minnesota, do not have access to care that aligns with their needs and preferences. From the report: "...nearly half of families who receive financial assistance experienced misalignment between their preferences for inclusive child care practices that support their child’s development and the child care they actually received." (authors: Ashley Hirilall, Holly Keaton, Kathryn Tout, Jennifer Cleveland, Mallory Warner, and Elizabeth Villegas, Ph.D.)

Child care is infrastructure and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark has a legislative package to make essential investments in facilities and workforce. Here are the first 5 things you need to know about her child care package: https://lnkd.in/eywndMQG