Below are recent state and local efforts to strengthen the ECE workforce, including increasing wages and benefits, strengthening career pathways and professional development, and promoting health and wellness. Many of these efforts are supported by funds from CCDF, Head Start, American Rescue Plan, Tribal MIECHV, and Preschool Development Grants B-5.
Increasing compensation: wages, benefits, and incentives
Alabama is investing American Rescue Plan Act stabilization funding for Child Care Workforce Stabilization Grants to support recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. The grants provide quarterly bonus payments of up to $1,500 for eligible child care staff. Eligible staff include all child care staff as well as cooks, admins, owners, van drivers, etc. who are on the payroll and serve the licensed child care facility exclusively. Providers can apply for the grants each quarter through 2023 for up to eight opportunities to receive quarterly bonuses for their staff. Over 10,000 child care staff members have received bonuses. (Updated July 2022)
Alaska offered Alaska SEED Retaining Our Outstanding Teachers (ROOTs) Awards in 2021 and 2022 to recognize previous and continued employment in the early childhood education field. The Alaska SEED ROOTs Award provided early childhood educators with a $500 bonus in 2021 and a $3,000 bonus in 2022 for personal and professional expenses and to encourage retention in the field. As of June 1, 2022, a total of 2,077 early childhood educators have been approved for an award , and over $4 million in awards have been distributed statewide. (Updated July 2022)
Connecticut is investing in benefits for the ECE workforce along with increased compensation. Providers can opt in to receive an additional 25 percent of Stabilization Grant funds by agreeing to increase regular staff compensation, which may include:
- Bonuses or increases in wages for any period between January 2020 and September 2023
- Contributions towards health insurance costs that reduce such costs for staff
- Contributions to staff retirement plans
- Educational advancement or tuition reimbursement for staff
- Coverage of child care costs for staff members’ children (Updated October 2021)
The District of Columbia's new pay equity funds will support compensation and pay parity for early childhood educators following recommendations from the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force (PDF). Eligible teachers, assistant teachers, and home providers who work in licensed child development facilities in the District and work with children ages birth to 5 will receive supplemental payments in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 of up to $14,000. In future years, the District will replace supplemental payments with ongoing funding for child development facilities. This will help increase early childhood educator pay in alignment with minimum salaries and a recommended pay scale that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education will establish. (Updated July 2022)
The Explorers Academy Head Start program, located in Billings, Montana, engages in several efforts to improve wages and benefits for staff, as well as promote staff wellness. They used COVID-relief funding from the Office of Head Start to provide retention bonuses to staff in 2021 and 2022, as well as bonuses after receiving COVID vaccinations. The program invests $450 per month for each employee to provide health, dental, or vision insurance, as well as flex benefits for medical and child care assistance. Employees are also offered paid leave time based on years of service, in addition to 19 paid holidays each year. The program supports investments in retirement with a 401K for which they offer an employer match of 3% after staff have been employed for one year. In 2020, they began offering 6 to 8 weeks of paid maternity leave to staff through long- and short-term disability insurance. Long-term disability insurance also offers additional employee assistance services, such as counseling; help with legal, financial, or mental health concerns; and other life supports. The program also offers on-site counseling services to staff if they experience a traumatic event. The Explorers Academy tracks data on staff turnover and has observed a decline in staff turnover since implementing several of these staff benefits. Finally, the program has a strong emphasis on promoting a positive program culture that supports staff wellness, including a wellness committee and events committee to promote employee engagement. They collect data and information from staff to ensure program leadership are truly listening to staff, and to continue to find ways to improve supports for their workforce. (Updated July 2022)
Idaho is using ARP and other CCDF relief funds to offer a Child Care Wage Enhancement Grant for eligible child care programs to temporarily increase the wages of eligible child care staff. Eligible staff must receive a W-2 from their employer, work with children at least 15 hours per week, and have been employed for the entire prior month. Enrollment in IdahoSTARS RISE workforce registry is also required. The IdahoSTARS Rise registry maintains the grant applications, documentation, and communications. Idaho will distribute a total of $30 million in grant awards. The state will continue to pay monthly awards until it exhausts the available funds, which it estimates will happen in May 2023. (Updated July 2022)
Illinois is developing a statewide ECE salary scale that will account for years of experience and have parity with K-12 school system, including wages and benefits (i.e., health coverage, paid time off, retirement). The Illinois Early Childhood Transformation Team hosted focus groups with ECE directors and staff to review and provide input on the design of a proposed statewide ECE salary scale. In addition, the State invested $200 million to bolster the education, training, skills, and credentials of the child care workforce. The funding aims to expand the early childhood educator pipeline through scholarships, coaches, mentors, and navigators to help child care workers pursue their degrees. Illinois also created the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (PDF) to help strengthen career pathways for the ECE workforce. The Consortium is an agreement between public universities, community colleges, and private institutions to cooperate through regional hubs to improve access to degrees and certificates, Gateways credentials, and other licensure endorsements. (Updated July 2022)
Illinois developed a Child Care Workforce Bonus program to recognize the efforts of child care staff who continue to serve children and families in-person during the pandemic. The one-time bonus is available to all staff employed at a licensed or license-exempt provider who participates in the CCDF program. Bonus amounts are between $750 and $1,200 per full time equivalent. Eligible programs will apply to administer the funds directly to their staff and funding will include a percentage for payroll taxes and for non-teaching staff. (Updated October 2021)
Kansas is using CCDF COVID-19 relief funding to develop an Early Childhood Shared Resources platform, which will provide access to pooled resources and services for child care providers. Through this platform, providers can purchase telehealth and teletherapy services for themselves and their families for less than $20 per month. It will offer basic medical coverage and mental health support with prescription-writing discounts and access to nonemergency medical care. (Updated July 2022)
Kentucky (PPTX) provides a base payment determined by child care program capacity with additional funds available for programs that pay staff at higher rates. The program allows providers who are not currently meeting the higher hourly pay rates ($10 or $13/hour) to apply for the 10% or 20% additional funding in order to increase compensation. Providers who receive additional funds are required to document that raises have been made within four months. Kentucky also increased their payment rates for their subsidy program and increased income eligibility for families. (Updated October 2021)
Lake County Tribal Health Consortium (LCTHC) and Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health (RSB) used Tribal Home Visiting ARP funds to increase compensation, benefits and professional development opportunities to support and retain staff. LCTHC and RSB made cost-of-living adjustments, and RSB boosted salaries to attract home visitors with advanced degrees and to retain staff. Both LCTHC and RSB invested in additional professional development, staff team-building activities, and self-care activities to support staff morale and engagement, especially during the pandemic. LCTHC invested in virtual Reflective Supervision Collaborative for staff to build this capacity internally and further support and enhance reflective capacity within the entire team. (Updated July 2022)
Louisiana made substantial increases in the subsidy rates paid to child care programs. Infant rates in center-based child care increased from the 40th to the 85th percentile. Toddler rates increased from the 31st to the 75th percentile and preschool rates increased from the 25th to the 80th percentile. In family child care settings, rates increased to the 85th percentile of the market rate for infant care and toddler and preschool rates meet or exceed the recommended federal benchmark of the 75th percentile. Further, Louisiana used 2020 price and cost study results , including data collected on the impact of the pandemic and other emergencies, to improve their payment policies, including shifting from reimbursement based on attendance to reimbursement based on enrollment. (Updated October 2021)
Minnesota (PDF) included a requirement that programs use a minimum of 70% of their Child Care Stabilization Base Grant amount towards increased compensation, staff benefits, or premium pay. Allowable expenses include hourly wages, staff benefits (such as health, retirement, education), or other bonus structures (such as hiring bonus, staff bonus, etc.). Programs have the flexibility to disperse the 70% of the base grant as they see fit, so long as compensation is increased as outlined in State Statute. (Updated October 2021)
Nevada (PDF) is requiring that all providers that employ staff use a portion of their Stabilization Grant funds to support their staff with compensation and benefits. Providers — including centers, group/family child care homes and out of school time programs — must use at least 20 percent of their total award to provide financial supports and/or benefits to staff which may include, but are not limited to: bonuses, stipends, salary increases, paid leave, transportation assistance or other compensation/benefits that are in addition to their normal wages and/or benefits. (Updated October 2021)
New Hampshire (PDF) is requiring that provides allocate 25 percent of Stabilization Grant awards to employee incentives, such as increased wages, premium pay, one-time bonuses, and has an incentive bonus for programs that provide free child care for their staff. (Updated October 2021)
Vermont is using ARP funds to create Vermont’s first student loan debt relief program for early childhood educators. The Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program aims to recruit and retain early childhood educators who have recently earned degrees in the early childhood field. It will provide up to $4,000 annually to reduce the student debt of full-time educators who earned an early childhood-specific degree within the last 5 years. (Updated July 2022)
Virginia invested initial PDG B-5 funds to recognize early educators through the RecognizeB5 program. In the initial year, the state conducted a RCT study to understand how financial incentives would influence teacher turnover in early childhood settings. With limited funding at the time for retention initiatives, the state created a lottery in one part of the state for early childhood educators to apply for a $1,500 Recognition Program payment. Eight months later, teachers selected to receive the payment were 11 percentage points less likely to have left their sites, compared to teachers not selected to receive the payment. Among teachers who were offered payments, some received three payments of $500 over three months, and others were offered a lump sum after eight months. Teachers selected to receive three payments were 5 percentage points less likely to have left their sites than those offered the lump-sum payment. Effects were particularly large among early childhood educators working in child care settings, who face the lowest levels of compensation. The results suggest that investments in early childhood educators can improve employment stability for those working with children at a critical developmental period, and that it may be beneficial to structure payments over time, rather than providing a lump sum payment. Based on study findings, the Virginia General Assembly increased investment in this program. From an initial investment of $2.9M that recognized 2,023 educators in the 2019-2020 school year with payments of $1,500, to up to $12.5 million in the 2021-2022 school year supporting 6,500 educators with payments of $2,000 per educator, an incentive of $3,000 per educator is planned for the 2023-2024 school year, representing a total investment of up to $20 million including state funds supplemented by PDG B-5 and CCDF relief funds. (Updated July 2022)
Strengthening career pathways & professional development
Arkansas (PDF) invested $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to cover scholarships for early childhood teachers to obtain a degree or credential in the field while they are working with young children. Funding is disseminated by the Arkansas Early Childhood Association using the national TEACH model. (Updated July 2022)
California invested PDG B-5 funds to provide accessible, multilingual resources for ECE providers. The California Center for Professional Development and Innovation (CPDI) continues to produce 200 hours of online professional development in English and Spanish for the early childhood and care workforce, and now will be offering two of these courses in Mandarin and Cantonese. As Chinese is the third most common language spoken among providers in California, this will enable even more providers to access online learning. The courses will be made accessible through the California Early Childhood Online (CECO) platform using a Smartphone, tablet, or computer. The state has also invested in mentoring for ECE providers. California invested $1 million to match community college students from 100 colleges with experienced early childhood providers through the California Early Childhood Mentor Program (CECMP) to build a pipeline of qualified early educators. Mentors build relationships and guide mentees as they prepare for interviews, learn, and implement relevant Health and Safety standards, develop their child observation and assessment skills and support children in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. (Updated July 2022)
Colorado now requires all licensed child care facilities' staff to register in the Colorado Shines Professional Development Information System (PDIS) , the state's recently rebuilt workforce registry and learning management system. This will result in more robust workforce data collection, including key information on recruitment, retention, and credentials. A dashboard is currently being refreshed to help communities’ access interagency data to help target workforce funding needs. Supplemental CCDF funds will be used to automate the dashboard to provide more regular updates. (Updated July 2022)
Colorado is using their ARP Supplemental funds to help eligible child care providers recruit and retain early childhood professionals. Eligible providers may use grant funds for employee benefits, employee compensation, professional development, and hiring additional staff. The state is also providing opportunities for free educational coursework to help bring new professionals into the field. This effort will provide a pathway to employment as an ECE educator without the upfront cost of coursework and help address Colorado’s overall unemployment concerns. Combining free coursework with work experiences through apprenticeship programs and teacher peer mentorship programs, ECE professionals will have opportunities to obtain paid work experiences while pursing credentials or degrees, and gain support along the way from a mentor educator. (Updated October 2021)
Georgia is developing alternate higher education and career pathways, including a focus on supporting bilingual individuals with attaining a credential or degree in early childhood education. A partnership has been developed with the Council for Professional Recognition to the design and implement a Bilingual Child Development Associate (CDA) pilot program with the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). Two cohorts have completed the program and plans are in place to start a third. (Updated July 2022)
Kentucky (PDF) is investing ARP funding to train apprentice candidates in preschool, infant/toddler, or director registered apprenticeship programs. Kentucky will support the cost of college coursework and pay for candidates’ Child Development Associate (CDA) fees, orientation fees, first aid and CPR training fees, or any other certification during the registered apprenticeship. The state will also develop a coaching model that uses the same curriculum and coaching practices to train all apprentices. (Updated July 2022)
Kentucky (PPTX) is using a portion of ARP Supplemental funding to build the supply of child care for underserved populations and support scholarships and training for the ECE workforce. A new preschool partnership will support children who qualify for CCDF and those with special needs to get IEP services through 3-hour public preschool and still obtain full-day child care so that families can work. This program will provide or supplement salaries to extend hours, open new classrooms or provide social and emotional supports to all children enrolled. In addition, through their infant and toddler pilot project, programs will receive monthly payments for contracted slots along with a required compensation floor for all staff members. In addition, Kentucky is investing in several scholarship and training opportunities, including:
- Scholarships for employees working at least 20 hours per week in a child care program that provide full coverage of a CDA program or full tuition for AA or BA in ECE at a Kentucky community college or university;
- Scholarships for ECE directors or administers working at least 20 hours per week in a child care program covering full tuition for a master’s degree in ECE or early childhood special education at a KY state university;
- Apprenticeships to support mentor teachers and host programs to train apprentice candidates in the preschool, infant/toddler, or director apprenticeship programs. Apprentices will have their CDA fees covered, along with fees for orientation, First Aid/CPR training, and any other needed certification;
- Two training academies, one focusing on working with children with special needs and one focusing on director skills. (Updated October 2021)
Parents in Community Action (PICA), located in Hennepin County, Minnesota, implemented a ’Grow Your Own’ approach as part of their staff recruitment strategy. They developed a series of five, hands-on training programs to create pathways for parents to become staff. These include: 1) working in an Early Head Start or Head Start classroom, 2) working in a commercial kitchen, 3) working in a clerical role, 4) monitoring the front entrances, and 5) learning how to drive a school bus. These training programs represent essential positions that are in critical demand in their program and community. Each includes 96 hours of training and upon completion, and parents receive a $300 stipend for participating. Further, parents interested in pursuing a teaching career can apply for a paid 700-hour internship program. As part of this program, they learn more in-depth teaching strategies and have the opportunity to participate in PICA’s in-house Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialing program. As a result of these efforts and more, approximately 52% of PICA’s staff are current or former Head Start parents. (Updated July 2022)
The YMCA of the East Bay (PDF) serves 1,200 children across four counties in Head Start, Early Head Start, state-funded preschool, and child care settings. In 2015, with support from an Early Head Start — Child Care Partnership grant, the YMCA recruited 21 parents to participate in a teacher training program. Through the practice-based program, all earned a California state-based teaching credential. Since that time, the YMCA has expanded their Early Educator Apprenticeship Program to serve additional apprentices, many of whom go on to earn their Associate’s and/or Bachelor’s degree. In addition to classes, the apprenticeship model includes daily on-site work in early education classrooms. The YMCA provides commensurate increases in salary as the qualifications of apprentices increase. In this work, the YMCA partners with multiple local 2- and 4-year colleges. The YMCA has worked hard to recruit instructors of color into the apprenticeship program, to be more reflective of the diverse communities they serve. The apprenticeship program includes the following key components to support success of the apprentices: embedded tutoring and mentoring, technology support, soft skills training, mental health consultation, and tuition, fees, books, and other supplies. Graduates of the apprenticeship program are offered employment opportunities with the YMCA or other local child care programs. The apprenticeship program has served nearly 400 participants since it began in 2015. To learn more, see this annual report from the YMCA of the East Bay on their Early Childhood Impact (PDF). (Updated October 2021)
Promoting staff health and wellness and other staff supports
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) in Alaska, a Tribal CCDF grantee that consolidates their CCDF funds into a Public Law 102-477 integrated employment, training, and related services plan, invested American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds into holistic self-care and wellness initiatives to support staff. This includes contracting with an Indigenous yoga instructor to offer online yoga classes twice a week for all staff that weaved together traditional knowledge and Western approaches. In addition to yoga, APIA worked with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine to offer an 8-week culturally grounded evidence-based group class for staff. The classes focused on meditation, movement, breathwork, journaling, and drawing, and incorporated traditional music and other cultural adaptations. The groups were found to reduce anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic distress symptoms and improve coping skills, immune functioning, relationships, and connection to culture and traditional practices. (Updated July 2022)
Arkansas will soon begin using PDG B-5 funds to offer a range of mental-health related supports for the ECE workforce. They will help ECE providers access mental health treatment services through partnering with AR ConnectNow , a comprehensive, telehealth-based behavioral health treatment program developed during the pandemic. The state will also offer support and stress management skill-building groups and assistance accessing treatment and other services. (Updated May 2023)
Lake County Tribal Health Consortium’s Tribal Home Visiting Program in Lakeport, California uses Conscious Discipline to create safety, connections, and measured problem-solving within the team. The goal is to learn how to self-regulate to manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. That means learning how to become present, attuned, and respond in measured ways. The practice helps staff be more focused on engagement and to respond with curiosity and compassion rather than to react, punish, or place blame. The Lake County Tribal Health Consortium (PDF) team engages in a set of regular activities that help staff process emotions and respond more constructively. For example, at their Monday morning meetings, the team starts with a greeting activity and continues with a breathing exercise. Then each member of the team articulates their well wishes and intentions. The meeting ends with each team member sharing a commitment for the week. They check back with each other during the week on the commitments to offer encouragement and support. As the home visiting team learn these and other strategies, they use them with families they serve with the intention of supporting parent-child bonding and relationships bolstered by joy and compassion. (Updated May 2023)
Child Care Resource Center (CCRC), a Head Start grant recipient with multiple locations in Southern California, supports their workforce with a strong emphasis on staff empowerment. Staff have the autonomy to design creative solutions to problems based on individualized family needs. Hiring of new staff focuses not just on qualifications but also on unique skills that help create meaningful learning environments for children and positive experiences for all families. Staff are trained on trauma-informed care approaches and receive ongoing coaching and support to implement these approaches. CCRC also created an anti-racist task force that encourage participation by all levels of staff. This includes comprehensive trainings for Head Start staff, along with in-depth conversations and interactions, which have cultivated a deep sense of pride as well as the building of strong family partnerships. (Updated July 2022)
Children’s Learning Centers of Fairfield County (CLC), a Head Start grant recipient located in Fairfield, Connecticut, partners with 26 different local colleges and universities and engages in regular outreach to their network of community partners as part of their staff recruitment efforts. Teachers can recommend individuals with an interest or background in early childhood education to work at CLC, and if that person is hired and stays with CLC for at least 6 months, the recommending teacher receives a $500 employee referral bonus, with no limit to the number of referral bonuses one can receive. CLC has used their ARP and other COVID-relief funding to support these efforts. CLC also has a teacher development manager on staff who recruits qualified teaching staff and is involved in streamlining the hiring process. Once teaching staff are hired, the teacher development manager assists the new staff with professional development plans, establishing both short- and long-term goals. They provide guidance and connect them with continuing education resources and opportunities to obtain financial aid and scholarships. This role is incredibly valuable to CLC because it supports the program’s capacity to hire and retain high-quality staff. (Updated July 2022)
Colorado has made a concerted effort to support the mental health and well-being of children, families, and professionals in the state’s ECE system by building a statewide infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) program . This investment aims to reduce workforce stress, increase staff retention, support the well-being of young children, and address behaviors adults find challenging. IECMH consultants use Reflective Consultation as one key strategy to promote staff mental health and well-being. While the state supported IECMHC before the pandemic, in 2020 the governor issued an executive order to expand the service, followed by the state legislature passing HB20-1053 to create a statewide model of IECMHC. The state program was awarded an additional $7.8 million in COVID relief funds to be used between July 1, 2021-September 30, 2024. In FY23 total funding for the program was $5.8 million, which includes state general funds, CCDF, and COVID relief funds. This funding has supported the recruitment, training, and professional development of 52 full-time equivalent (FTE) state-funded consultants who provide services to all 64 counties in Colorado, with philanthropic investment expanding the scope of this effort and supporting approximately 18 additional FTEs. In 2021, the state legislature passed SB21-137 which mandated a workforce gap analysis and an evaluation of the program by 2026 to identify outcomes, areas for improvement, and ways to better meet the needs of Colorado’s young children, families, and providers. (Updated May 2023)
East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP) is funded to provide services to 2,759 children from birth to 5 years of age. The program offers early childhood education and comprehensive services in 49 centers across 10 states. ECMHSP services are designed to meet the unique needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and provide extended center-based services from 8-12 hours each day. The program returned to in-person services at the height of the pandemic to meet the needs of families, all of whom are essential workers. Staff adapted and responded to innumerable changes, and supported children, families and communities in crisis, many while dealing with their own families in crisis. The program’s leadership saw signs of compassion fatigue, stress and exhaustion and knew they needed to help better support staff health and wellness. The program used COVID-relief funding to provide:
- Wellness activity days for whole centers — activities were selected by center teams and could include art therapy, mindfulness walks, yoga or Zumba, and other group activities. Teams selected activities that all staff would be comfortable with, many facilitated by mental health consultants.
- Mental Health consultant facilitated group meetings with full center staff or smaller teams to discuss and process the experiences of the past season. Referrals were made for those that needed more support.
- Two additional paid days off for center directors. Center Directors were on the front lines supporting staff and families and were making many difficult decisions. They needed some time away.
- Respite week to ensure the health and safety of children and to provide care for staff. Centers closed for one week of paid time off, and staff were urged to take time to rest, care for themselves, and care for their family members. The difficult decision to close was made in consultation with parents, who strongly supported the need for staff to get some rest.
- Crisis support — When tragedies impacted centers, local teams worked collaboratively to develop individualized crisis plans. Teams could select from a menu of online or in person supports, and included resources provided by insurance providers, the employee assistance program, mental health consultants, and local supports.
- Watch this video to learn more about ECMHSP’s approach to supporting staff health and wellness. (Updated October 2021)
Knox County Head Start, located in Mount Vernon, Ohio, provides mental health support to staff through a partnership with mental health professionals who are available to staff every Wednesday to provide free counseling sessions, both virtually and in-person. The program found this incredibly successful not only for staff who were asking for mental health support, but also for helping reluctant staff to see the importance of prioritizing their own mental health. The program also hosts events that support positive physical health, such as wellness bingo and meditation challenges. Additionally, they purchased the Head Space mindfulness and meditation app for employees and have been intentionally incorporating its techniques into daily practices, such as starting staff meetings with meditation exercises. In the Fall, they held a surprise staff appreciation day where leadership delivered coffee and donuts to all the centers. And in the Spring, they hosted a mental health day which gave employees the chance to take part in activities such as yoga, painting or a meditative labyrinth walk. (Updated July 2022)
Maine (PDF) is using ARP CCDF Supplemental funds for an initiative for newly licensed Family Child Care providers. FCC providers licensed as of or after July 1, 2021 are eligible to receive a one-time $2,000 stipend. At time of initial contact to receive the stipend, providers are informed of the many funding and quality improvement opportunities available for programs along with a CCSP Provider Agreement. (Updated October 2021)
Montclair Child Development Center (MCDC) is located in Essex County, New Jersey. The program is funded to provide services to 490 children through center-based services for children birth to 5 years old and home-based services for children enrolled in Early Head Start. MCDC operates out of 4 sites with 61% of staff living in the communities where they work. Thirty-six percent of staff are former Head Start parents. As other employers are experiencing talent leaving for other opportunities, MCDC has a low turnover rate (less than 10%) which is attributed primarily to its caring culture. They provide intentional support to their staff through coaching, mentoring, and a program design that encourages the team to “be patient and kind with themselves first so that they can be patient and kind with others.” The approach is supported through mental health and employee assistance programs in addition to a Head Start Director who centers programing around the MCDC’s mission of “embrace, empower, and strengthen.” Watch this video to learn more about Montclair’s approach to supporting staff retention. (Updated October 2021)
Nebraska has used their PDG B-5 grant to grow and strengthen the ECE workforce, including promoting their mental health and well-being. One initiative, called Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME) , provides ECE staff with a series of 1.5-hour sessions led by a trained guiding teacher who facilitates activities such as journaling, reflective practice, meditation, and mindfulness exercises to support themselves, as well as the children in their care. Implementation of CHIME is supported by a team from the University of Nebraska — Lincoln. A pilot randomized controlled trial of the program showed that participation in CHIME reduced stress and difficulties in emotional regulation and increased self-compassion, mental well-being, and feeling of efficacy and general healthiness. Another PDG B-5-supported initiative is connecting ECE programs to Reflective Practice, using the Facilitated Attuned Interactions (FAN) approach from the Nebraska Center on Reflective Practice , also at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln. Through these services, ECE staff process the emotional impacts of their work with a trained FAN professional by examining their past experiences and responses to stressful situations and identifying positive changes for the future. Results show that participants improve their ability to manage and cope with workplace stress and feel that they have more positive relationships. (Updated May 2023)
New Mexico launched Elevate New Mexico Child Care to enhance support for child care businesses throughout the state so that providers will have support for the day-to-day administrative tasks needed to run their programs. Thorough this initiative, New Mexico provides child care centers, licensed and registered homes free access to child management software that eliminates paperwork, and provides tools for everything from outreach and enrollment to collecting copayments online. (Updated October 2021)
PAL Early Head Start/Head Start program in New York City hired their own mental health manager to provide more dedicated time to staff, families, and children across the program’s eight sites. The manager visits each center regularly and provide individual and group consultations with staff. The manager also created a staff wellness team with representatives from each site, as well as parents from the community. The team develops a staff wellness plan and meets monthly to monitor how it’s going and discuss issues that need to be addressed. They also survey the staff regularly. Some of the actions taken to promote ECE staff’s mental health include training and resources (e.g., apps) for self-care; creating more inviting and comfortable spaces with rugs, air purifiers, music; and professional development on trauma-informed practice and Conscious Discipline. (Updated May 2023)
Utah’s Office of Child Care in the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) has dedicated approximately $1 million of COVID relief funds to connect ECE staff directly to mental health services in response to increased demand from teachers and providers. DWS contracted and collaborated with the Office of Substance Use and Mental Health in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to create a referral service that is open to all staff in licensed or regulated programs, including licensed family child care and DWS-approved Family, Friend, and Neighbor providers. If eligible, the ECE staff can receive up to 4 sessions per month with a mental health professional that can be renewed quarterly as long as they remain an eligible employee and funding is available. Early childhood educators and providers can also access telehealth services through an Employee Assistance Program. The state launched this pilot initiative in December 2022 and have approved approximately 500 individuals for the service, with 145 accessing services in the first 3 months of the year. Funding for this program is available through June 2024. (Updated May 2023)
Washington state recently doubled the number of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants who work with ECE providers to strengthen and support the efforts of families, child care providers and early childhood systems to promote optimal social and emotional development of children, reduce suspension and expulsions, and build resiliency. ECE providers with mental health consultation support report an increase in the ability to support the children and families in their care, which in turn reduces compassion fatigue and turnover among staff. (Updated July 2022)
Benton Franklin Head Start in Richland, Washington has emphasized staff wellness by implementing trauma-informed care techniques. The program contracted with a local team of psychologists to put together a training day, as well as six follow-up meetings throughout the year for staff. Additionally, they have provided staff with education books on dealing with and healing from trauma as well as journaling supplies to support staff wellness and mental health. (Updated May 2023)