Using technology to drive innovation in early care and education

Key points:

Fasten your seat belts. The last few years in the early care and education (ECE) space have been a figurative roller coaster of ups and downs when it comes to the availability and distribution of public funds.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative and devastating impact on the supply and availability of ECE care, as well as the exodus of much of the ECE workforce. In response to this national crisis, Congress provided a total of more than $52 billion in additional funding to stabilize the ECE field and ensure that eligible families could still access care. States have used these funds not only to stabilize the supply of care and the ECE workforce, but also to explore new solutions to support efforts to rebuild, expand, and improve the quality of ECE across the country.

As these supplemental COVID-19 dollars come to an end, many states are exploring new funding strategies as well as innovative approaches and opportunities to continue supporting the ECE field and allowing the industry to grow. An illustrative example has been the creation of new public-private partnerships, such as the one in Michigan Tripartite program, where private employer funds are combined with public ECE funds to provide optional care options for children from eligible low-income families.

Many states are looking to adopt their own similar programs and are exploring other solutions to support the ECE field and ECE options for working families, but funding remains a challenge. To remove some of these barriers and drive innovation, ECE professionals can turn to public-private partnerships and technology to solve the problem.

The importance of ECE

The period between birth and five years of age is a critical period for children's brain development. Investigation documents the importance of providing high-quality, nurturing care to build and reinforce positive development during the early years of childhood, providing a strong foundation for later learning, development, and behaviors. The opposite is also true: a lack of high-quality, loving care or negative learning experiences in the early years can create problems for academic success and future educational pursuits.

Recognizing how crucial ECE is to a child's development and learning potential, we must prioritize improvements to the ECE system. Rebuilding the ECE field after the COVID-19 pandemic will require adopting new approaches and technological solutions that invite greater innovation in the field and remove some of the previous logistical barriers.

Removing barriers

One of the main problems hindering innovation in ECE programs lies in the funding process: from lack of sufficient resources to the distribution of limited funds and competing priorities. Unlike K-12 education, the ECE field encompasses many different programs and funding sources, which vary from state to state. Beyond that, ECE program administrators often have to juggle various federal and state regulatory, administrative, and reporting requirements that dictate where and how funds must be spent. In turn, this can hinder the efficient and timely distribution of funds.

Administrators want to find the best ways to distribute ECE funds while still meeting requirements, ECE providers and parents are eager to receive funds, and the government needs to make sure all the boxes are checked. Being responsive to these different objectives and perspectives is essential to enable quick and easy access to the various sources of ECE funding, which can and should be applied to new technological initiatives that will generate lasting benefits for all parties.

Fortunately, the industry recognizes that there are new technological solutions available that can make a big difference in efficiency and compliance, starting with tools like digital wallets.

Digitize financing sources

In recent years, the government and its stakeholders have been working to bring together the fragmented ECE funding streams, ultimately aiming to achieve better coordination across the full range of ECE programmes. At the same time, digital wallets are gaining popularity. Recent investigation of McKinsey and Company says that global revenue from payments with digital wallets grew by double digits for the second consecutive year.

Digital wallets can also be used to distribute public funds efficiently and reliably while still complying with government and program regulations. Instead of spending hours on paperwork and manual processes, administrators can manage funds and optimize programs more easily with the use of a digital wallet, while ensuring ECE programs meet (and exceed) regulatory and compliance standards. of the program.

An example of a state that has successfully used a digital wallet to manage and distribute ECE funds is the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). The department needed a way to manage and distribute a wide variety of ECE funds, including funds from four separate grant programs. They lacked internal capacity to manage and distribute grant funds efficiently and effectively, and the state's process for vendor management was time-consuming and labor-intensive. By utilizing a digital payment platform, DECAL was able to dramatically streamline the process and provide access to essential resources for ECE programs and providers throughout Georgia. This digital wallet technology not only saved DECAL time and money, but also ensured strict reporting control and compliance and custom dashboards to assist in their reporting and accountability requirements.

Digital wallets reduce the workload of administrators, teachers, and providers, help streamline internal administrative and financial processes, and give them more time to focus on other important ECE service delivery priorities. Administrators need as much time as possible to focus on creating more innovative ECE programs that better support the next generation of young children and students.

Those of us in the ECE field would be remiss if we ignore the potential opportunities that new and innovative technology-based solutions can bring and should look to industry resources and technology to help close the gaps between compliance, convenience and services. of high-quality ECE.