Here is a thoughtful read on Teacher Appreciation Week for pre-K through 12 teachers. We should be making similar recommendations for the early childhood workforce and consider teachers of children birth to five just that, teachers. 

Quotable & Notable

Fact of the Week

An article by Hechinger Report describes the importance and prevalence of friend, family, and neighbor care (FFN), particularly for children with disabilities as well immigrant families or those with limited English proficiency. The majority of children (60%) under the age of 6 are estimated to spend their time in FFN. That estimate comes from the Migration Policy Institute. 

Policy Radar

Child care reimbursement rates 

This week as part of the second annual “Day Without Child Care,” advocates in Ohio visited the Statehouse to call for better pay for early childhood educators as well as expanded eligibility for families to access publicly funded care. Ohio lawmakers are currently considering the second request; Gov. DeWine proposed shifting Ohio’s threshold for eligibility to 160% of the federal poverty line, and the Ohio House of Representatives passed its version of the biennial budget while keeping that provision in. (If accepted in the final budget, after Senate passage and conference committee deliberation, this would open access to 15,000 new Ohio families and would cost the state about $100 million per year.) 

In terms of early educator pay, however, it’s important to understand what’s standing in the way of early learning providers being able to pay teachers more. As one home-based provider, Tarrezz Thompson, said: “Small programs like mine have gone for far too long without sustainable reimbursement or support from legislation... Policy blocks community programs from accessing other streams of income, and yet they continue pay these community programs at 25% market rate when federal guidelines suggest 75%." (Quote from Gongwer News, which is paywalled for use.)  

What does this mean in layperson’s terms – and why is it so important to understand? Stick with us for a moment as we know reimbursement rates and percentiles can become confusing quickly. The federal government recommends that states set reimbursement rates for child care providers at the 75th percentile. Some of Ohio’s programs are set at the level (with quality-based incentives), but the base rate is currently set at the 25th percentile.  

A reimbursement rate reflects how much providers receive from the state for each child based on age of the child, county location, and quality level of the center. For instance, a center-based provider not yet participating in Ohio’s quality-rating system receives $146.25 per week per infant, which comes out to an hourly rate of $6.56. Infant reimbursement rates are the highest; in this same example, the rate for a preschooler in the same place would be $4.18 hourly. For home providers (licensed, Type B) the rates are quite a bit lower - $4.47 for infants hourly and $3.71 for preschoolers.  

The percentile for the reimbursement rate reflects whether there is equal access for publicly funded families. So, for a family receiving public assistance for child care where rates are set at the 75th percentile, this means that when they go out into the “market” and evaluate their options for child care, 75% of options should be affordable to them with that subsidy. (It reflects “the price at or below which 75 percent of child care providers reported charging for services.”) The idea is that for families living under or near the poverty level, the funds received from the state program should be sufficient enough to allow them to find reliable child care that would enable them to keep their job. Where the base rate is set to the 25th percentile, that means about only one in four child care options are financially accessible for the family.  

For child care programs serving a high number of publicly funded children, their budget is limited almost entirely to the funds they get from the state through these reimbursements. Think about the math for a moment. How exactly can a program increase educator pay when it is already operating on a bare-bones budget – paying for materials, food, teacher wages, building expenses, administration, etc. - when the reimbursement rates (e.g., $6.56 per infant hourly) don’t reflect the actual cost of providing that care? This is why states are moving toward an approach called cost modeling, which is an arguably better way to estimate the costs of providing quality care and ensure that the child care industry is sustainable. 

Crane has been conducting research and analysis in this realm with several states, so we are passionate on the topic and want to make it more translatable, in general. Let us know if you have questions, thoughts, or ideas on this. 

Events and Happenings

The Ohio Legislative Children’s Caucus is hosting a panel on The Importance of Quality Childcare and Early Childhood Education to Ohio’s Economy on Monday, May 15.  

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center is hosting a webinar titled State Tax Credits: How States Can Leverage Tax Policy to Alleviate Childhood Poverty on Wednesday, May 24. 

New from Crane

Check out Crane’s latest brief describing best practices for pre-K programs supporting students transitioning to kindergarten.  

Beyond the Buckeye State

Canada has been heralded for its robust (government-funded) social supports, including childcare. This Cleveland.com article describes Quebec’s universal childcare program as part of its ongoing Rethinking Childcare series. 

This article does a good job of explaining the ins and outs of nurse-family partnerships by describing one such program in Idaho. The program is estimated to achieve $33,000 in savings for the $7,300 it costs to support each partnership. NFPs are one kind of client-centered home visiting model that can help support new moms and their babies during a critical developmental window of time. 

What We're Reading

The U.S. Department of Education published an interview with Dr. Wendy Grove, Ohio’s director of the Office of Early Learning and School Readiness. In it, she urges early childhood educators to “share their lived experiences” and highlights the importance of evidence and data in the decision-making process. 

Staffing shortages and program shutdowns are affecting the entire childcare system. The Hechinger Report highlights the increased difficulty that parents have finding inclusive childcare for children with disabilities. Teachers that support children with disabilities with one-on-one attention are often low-paid – leading to even more shortages in the field. When a child with disabilities does have a childcare spot, they are more likely to be phased out of the program for “disruptive” behavior (according to this research study – one out of every six children with autism have been stepped out of childcare programs). A family interviewed in the piece stated, “[families like mine] just need more programs with more professionals for kids with special needs.” 

Here’s an interesting read looking forward to 2024. It argues that Pres. Biden’s reelection chances may in part hinge on energizing women voters and making the case that he will keep working toward enhance child care, paid leave, and other policy issues important to families. 

Research Round-Up

This post by the Child and Family Blog describes research findings on parents’ “mind-mindedness” and their preschoolers’ later self-regulation skills. Mind-mindedness, a concept from development psychology, refers to the “ability of parents to accurately read and label their children’s thoughts, feelings, and wishes.” This could mean, for example, observing a toddler crying and reflecting on what their thoughts, feelings, and desires may be during that parent-child interaction, and responding accordingly. In the study, researchers observed conversations and interactions between parents and their babies and toddler and then measured the self-regulation skills of those same children when they were 4.5 years old. Children’s self-regulation was measured by parental perceptions of their child as well as by behavioral tasks completed by the children during the study, along with their heart rate variability. Perhaps unsurprisingly, findings suggest that parental mind-mindedness when children are young is related to a child’s ability to regulate their emotions once they are preschool aged. It also suggests that the development of important self-regulation skills begins early! 

This edition written by: Jamie O'Leary and Janelle Williamson

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