A program that began in Kentucky as a novel idea to rebuild the early childhood workforce, and indeed boost the job market overall, has quickly spread to states across the country.
To get early childhood educators back into classrooms, Bluegrass state lawmakers made a change in fall 2022 that expanded the eligibility requirements of Kentucky's child care subsidy program to include all staff working at least 20 hours per week in a licensed early care and education program. In fact, early childhood educators automatically became eligible for free child care for their own children, regardless of household income.
It was an instant blessing. In its first year, 3,200 Kentucky parents worked in early education and care. He participated in the program, from which some 5,600 children will benefit.
Early childhood advocates, policymakers, and business leaders in other states took notice. A creative solution with immediate impacts? They wanted to enter.
“It blew up,” says Lauren Hogan, managing director of policy and professional advancement at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nonprofit that advocates for high-quality early learning. “There is a reason why it has gained traction. “It has proven to be valuable.”
A year and a half after the Kentucky experiment, more than a dozen states have launched their own programs or are seriously considering them, including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Rhode Island.
If all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., adopted a policy like Kentucky's, more than 234,000 employees in early care and education settings with children under age 6 could benefit, according to a estimate from the Center for the Study of Employment in Child Care.
The premise of the initiative is simple: Better staffed child care and education programs will increase the supply of child care, allowing more parents to reenter the workforce. But the field has had difficulty retaining and attracting staff.
In recent years, amid the pandemic and rising inflation, many early childhood educators left the field because they discovered they could make more money elsewhere. Everyone from amazon to Target to Chick-fil-A offered higher wages. Child care providers, already operating on the smallest margins and charge families more than they can reasonably afford, they simply would not be able to compete.
The result was a lack of staff in early education and care programs, leading to closed classrooms and more families without access to care.
Kentucky's approach works because it gives early care and education providers a tool to retain the staff they have and improve treatment for future educators.
“If you can't directly increase the money in people's pockets, you can at least reduce their costs,” Hogan explains. “A lot of them have child care costs.”
Beyond its attractiveness to the economy, the program is also putting to rest a bitter irony that has long persisted in the field: Those who provide child care can rarely afford it themselves.
“Some of our educators can't even afford to have their own children attend the program they work in, and that just doesn't make sense,” says Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children. . “Now, there is a way they can afford it.”
Rhode Island has been under a $4 million annual contract for eight months pilot of a program modeled on Kentucky's, one that Hildebrand hopes will be renewed in the state legislature in June.
There is certainly evidence to support its continuation, he shares.
In March, 475 children were participating in the pilot program. Their parents work in 162 different early education programs in centers and homes throughout Rhode Island.
Of the participants, 23 percent were already eligible for the state's existing income-based program. Child Care Assistance Program. But more than three-quarters have had child care costs waived through the pilot program. (Rhode Island's program differs from Kentucky's in that it has an income limit, it's just noticeably higher than what is available to other families in the state.)
Providers have shared that they have been able to bring back former teachers and attract new ones to their programs, which is a big relief for the sector, Hildebrand says.
“Right now, staffing is at such a critical level (for some providers) that if they lose a teacher it will mean closing a classroom with a large number of children,” he explains. “(We) already have long waiting lists, families waiting years to get a place. “That means fewer people in the workforce.”
In a survey conducted by the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, which administers the program, one provider called the pilot “life-changing” for staff with young children. Others mentioned an influx of job seekers and new employees who are experienced and excited to work in the field, neither of which is a given in the low paid profession.
Another supplier said: “This has been an amazing experience. “We were able to attract a top-notch early childhood teacher who had decided to stay home because the cost of child care was too high compared to her income.”
“Categorical eligibility” for child care workers is a rare policy solution that “can be adopted by red and blue states,” Hogan notes.
In Nebraska, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been pushing for a bill with expanded eligibility for education and early care staff this legislative session.
“We're in a workforce crisis in Nebraska and we're in a child care crisis,” says Katie Bass, data and policy research advisor at First Five Nebraska, a bipartisan public policy organization focused on expanding opportunities in early childhood. years. “We can't solve our jobs crisis without solving our child care crisis.”
Nebraska's bill ultimately failed to pass before the end of the session in mid-April; There just wasn't enough money this time, Bass explains, but says he “certainly won't stop there.”
Representatives of conservative and liberal groups testified in favor of the program. The sponsor of the bill, State Senator John Fredrickson, intends to reintroduce the legislation in the next session, which begins in January 2025, Bass says. Meanwhile, he has introduced a intermediate study evaluate the different approaches other states are taking and determine the version that best suits early childhood educators in Nebraska.
“It's unprecedented,” Bass says of the bill's broad base of supporters. “The lack of child care is affecting the ability of all sectors to function.”
