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Archive for the ‘Child care’ Category

What Build Back Better could do…if it passes in the U.S. Senate

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #BuildBackBetter, #SolveChildCare on December 8, 2021| 1 Comment »

Photo: Thuan Vo from Pexels

The federal Build Back Better bill would make a historic investment in helping the country recover from the pandemic – including funding for early education and care that could revolutionize programs for young children.

The first step would be to reverse the damage caused by the pandemic.

As an article from the Center for American Progress explains, “While the relief funds included in the American Rescue Plan Act have limited the fallout from [the pandemic’s] unprecedented challenges, the fact remains that a market-based child care system cannot adequately serve American families.”

The article adds:

“The United States currently spends less than 0.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on early care and education, ranking near the bottom of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

“The effect of this chronic underinvestment is that under current law, very few children access subsidized care—even among those who are eligible. The Administration for Children and Families estimates that in 2017, of the 13.5 million children who were eligible for child care subsidies, only 1 in 7 received them.” (more…)

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Creating pathways to entrepreneurial leadership in early education – a guest blog post

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Dept. of Early Education and Care, Diversity equity and inclusion, Early educators, Guest Blog, Higher Education, National, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, tagged #EarlyEdMA, #EarlyEducators, #ece on December 7, 2021| 1 Comment »

This is a guest blog post by Anne Douglass, professor of Early Care and Education at UMass Boston and the founding executive director of the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation.

Anne Douglass

Early educators are smart, kind, engaging, and supportive and dedicated.

Here at UMass Boston, we also know that early educators are entrepreneurial leaders. That’s why our programs provide an education that boosts their leadership, creativity, and innovation – all to create a better early learning experience for children.

Examples of early educators’ entrepreneurship abound. Last month, the Cape Cod Times featured a front page story about Nature Preschool Explorers, a nature-based preschool at the Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Barnstable. The four-year-old school was touted as an example of the wave of educational programs focused on the outdoors that are popping up across the country.

The school was cofounded by Diana Stinson, an alum of UMass Boston’s Post-Master’s Leadership Certificate in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice (PMC) offered by our Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation (Early Ed Leadership Institute). (more…)

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In quotes: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, tagged #SolveChildCare on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation holds the position that childcare is a two-generation workforce issue because it is essential to supporting the workforce of today and vital to developing our workforce of tomorrow. There is not enough access to affordable, quality childcare which makes it difficult for parents trying to enter, re-enter, or stay in the workforce. In addition, the pandemic exacerbates existing issues in the childcare system and creates an impossible situation for parents, employers, and childcare providers. There are working parents who struggle to balance home childcare and work, children who miss valuable educational opportunities, childcare providers who are fighting to stay open and serve their communities, and employers wondering how and when their employees with children can return to work.

“Successful solutions can only be reached by jointly addressing gaps across affordability, access, flexibility, and quality.”

— “Untapped Potential: Economic Impact of Childcare Breakdowns on U.S. States,” Center for Education and Workforce at The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, November 30, 2021

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Fix child care? Yes we can, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Federal, Funding, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #earlyed, #SolveChildCare on December 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Screenshot: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston website

The title of new article posted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston makes an optimistic point: “The solution is no secret, we can fix child care.”

Child care is broken, the article’s authors Sarah Ann Savage and her colleagues concede, but “child care providers, program directors, and other field experts know how to make high-quality care and early education accessible to all. It’s really no secret: Major public investment and committed political will are what’s needed.”

“The task is big, but it is not unprecedented,” the article adds. “It took both political will and public investment to implement our public K-12 system. And today there are bellwethers suggesting the time may finally be ripe to revisit our relatively minimal public investment in child care.”

This willingness and public investment would help address nagging challenges such as the high cost of early education and care, especially for low-income families.

“Models indicate that eliminating child care expenses for low-income families and capping child care expenses at 7% of income for others would decrease poverty by 40% among New Englanders in families that use child care. Covering or mitigating child care costs would also be a small step toward equity, as the poverty reduction is greatest for Black and Hispanic families.” (more…)

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A recap of the State House hearing on early education and care

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, Strategies for Children, tagged #earlyed, #mapoli, #MARunsOnChildCare, #SolveChildCare on November 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Who is ready for game changing action on early childhood education? Check out @JDChesloff's testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Education. Full testimony⬇️https://t.co/Nccg15EclO
cc: @SenJasonLewis @RepAlicePeisch @MassBiz4EarlyEd #earlyed #earlychildhood #mapoli pic.twitter.com/xoN4bQag7e

— MA Business Roundtable (@MABizRoundtable) November 23, 2021

Last week at the State House, early education was in the spotlight.

The Joint Committee on Education held a hearing and heard testimony on “bills related to Early Education and Care, Kindergarten, and Literacy.”

“During a virtual hearing of the Joint Committee on Education, child-care providers and advocates joined lawmakers in calling for systemic changes to an industry known for its harsh economic imbalance,” the Boston Globe reports. “Massachusetts has some of the highest child-care costs in the nation, yet the state’s child-care workers earn a median salary of $37,000 a year, barely a living wage for someone with children.”

Video of the hearing and a list of the bills is posted here.

Among the bills that were discussed is the Common Start legislation (H.605, S.362), which “would establish a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline,” according to a fact sheet. Strategies for Children serves on the Common Start steering committee, and our executive director Amy O’Leary was one of more than 70 individuals who submitted written testimony in support of the bill. (more…)

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Step by step for the Build Back Better bill

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #BuildBackBetter, #EarlyEducators, #SolveChildCare, #universalPreK on November 23, 2021| 3 Comments »

Photo: Tatiana Syrikova from Pexels

There’s some good news for early education in Washington, D.C.

The Build Back Better bill has been passed by the House, bringing it one step closer to becoming law.

Next, the bill will have to make it through the Senate.

As Representative Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) explains, this legislation is vitally important.

“The Build Back Better Act is a once-in-a-generation investment in families. It will help us recover today and rebuild a stronger tomorrow. With this bill, we are fundamentally improving the lives of workers, women, children, and seniors and ensuring that the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share,” Clark says in a statement.

“When I first ran for Congress, I had a dream that every child in America could have access to a great start through universal pre-kindergarten. With today’s bill, what was once a moonshot will soon be reality. What’s more, we are lowering the cost of child care for 20 million families and finally honoring our child care workers with livable wages.” (more…)

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Join next week’s State House hearing

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Federal, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, National, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #earlyed, #ece, #mapoli, #VoicesFromTheField on November 18, 2021| 1 Comment »

Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children

Get ready for next week’s virtual State House hearing, where the Joint Committee on Education will hear testimony on “bills related to Early Education and Care, Kindergarten, and Literacy.”

To watch the hearing, tune in on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, at 11 am.

Want to testify? The deadline for signing up is the day before, Monday, November 22, at noon.

You can also email written testimony to Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov and Jason.Lewis@masenate.gov. Please include “Education Committee Testimony, [Relevant Bill Number]” in the email’s subject line.

Need to learn more about the bills? Keep reading.

Strategies for Children will provide testimony in support of two bills. One is the Common Start legislation, a bill (H.605, S.362) that “would establish a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline,” according to a fact sheet. (more…)

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Building a professional infrastructure for early education and care

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, Higher Education, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation on November 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Early education and care providers are in the middle of several crises. There’s the pandemic. There’s the shrinking workforce. And there’s the pandemic-related mental health crisis that’s playing out in children’s lives.

To stabilize and strengthen the field, the Department of Early Education (EEC) is building a new professional infrastructure. These initiatives are part of the strategic action plan, EEC’s guiding vision for 2020-2025.

Earlier this month, EEC’s Advisory Council and its Workforce Council held a joint meeting to discuss a range of workforce issues and solutions.

“We wanted to get some insights on some of the very specific initiatives that are both being conceptualized at the moment as well as [those that] are ready to start launching,” EEC Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy said in her introduction. The goal is to build “the systems that we need to fuel our growth and recovery.”

The topics on the meeting’s agenda were:

• Status of EEC Workforce

• Launch of a Professional Registry

• Educator Credentialing, and

• EEC Professional Pathways

Here’s a summary of what was discussed. (more…)

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In quotes: a coalition for universal child care in Connecticut

Posted in Child care, Early educators, Family engagement, National, tagged #SolveChildCare on November 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“In Connecticut, there is a new call for universal child care. A coalition, that includes providers and parents, has launched a campaign called Child Care For Connecticut’s Future.

“They want long-term change, not what they believe is a band-aid fix or limited solutions. The group is already bringing ideas to lawmakers.

“The coalition released a video Friday to kick off the campaign. Organizers say early childhood education is underfunded. They say they want two concrete changes: fair compensation for educators and more affordable child care.

“ ‘If you look at an annual costs, it costs more to pay for early education for your little one than it does to put your child that’s going through a state university through University, which is kind of mind-boggling.’ Eva Bermuda Zimmerman, CSEA SEIU Local 2001 child care and organizing director, said.”

— “Parents, Providers Join Campaign For Universal Child Care,” by Jane Caffrey, NBC Connecticut, November 10, 2021

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Welcoming LGBTQ+ families: a conversation with Ellie Friedland

Posted in Child care, Demographics, Developmentally appropriate practice, Diversity equity and inclusion, Early educators, Family engagement, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation on November 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

About 20 years ago, Wheelock College brought in trainers to teach a noncredit course for early educators called “Making Room in the Circle,” which covered how to welcome LGBTQ families into early childhood settings.

Some 50 early educators enrolled – and so did Wheelock professor Ellie Friedland along with other Boston area faculty.

Ellie Friedland

“The idea was that Wheelock professors who took the course would then go on to teach a for-credit course for students,” Friedland says.

“One of the stories I like to tell is that when I proposed the course to the faculty at Wheelock College, there were no questions. Everyone immediately said, of course.”

Friedland doesn’t teach the class on her own.

“I’m straight and cisgender, so that’s something I use in various ways in my workshops. But I never teach the class alone; it has to be co-taught by someone who identifies as something other than straight.”

“What we found was that there were always students who took the course because they were already immersed and active. And there were students who took the course because they didn’t know anything and felt the responsibility to learn. And there were students who took it because they were questioning their own identities. And for all students it was vital to have a professor they could identify with and feel comfortable with.”

Today, Friedland is still a professor at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and she is still sharing the importance of welcoming LGBTQ+ families, teaching classes, running workshops, and talking to Strategies for Children’s 9:30 callers.

We asked Friedland what barriers early educators face in welcoming families.

Her answer: “Fear.” (more…)