The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health has tips for keeping young children’s eyes safe during the solar eclipse on April 8. And check out the video of Eclipse: The Musical, from COSI, the Columbus children’s science museum.

QUOTABLE & NOTABLE

“That [early childhood] workforce lacks much of the foundational infrastructure needed to build a profession. There are no streamlined position definitions and aligned responsibilities and competencies, no career pathways, few accredited early childhood education programs and little public data on the workforce. Entry-level qualifications in most states are very low, and there are few clear ways for those working in the field to achieve higher levels of education and competence.

To address the challenge of professionalizing the child-care workforce, states can follow two successful professional development models: Head Start and the Defense Department’s Child Care System. Both have pursued a ‘top down-bottom up’ approach to building their workforces, aligning increased competency with higher compensation.”

Who:

Linda K. Smith, Director of the Early Childhood Development Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center

Where:

“Building the Child Care Workforce We Need” published in Governing

FACT OF THE WEEK

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced more than $64 million will be awarded to the Appalachian Children Coalition to improve access to healthcare through community and school-based health clinics in Ohio’s Appalachian communities.

POLICY RADAR

Literacy

As reported by Gongwer (article behind paywall), Ohio is placing literacy coaches in schools as part of its ReadOhio literacy improvement efforts — with a goal of placing at least 100 literacy coaches in schools across the state. Since December, 33 ReadOhio coaches have delivered over 2,600 coaching sessions at 53 districts and 12 charter schools. ReadOhio’s literacy improvement efforts were outlined in a presentation delivered this month by leaders from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

EVENTS & HAPPENINGS

Join the Crane Center and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs for an in-person policy chat on April 23 featuring Dr. Lauren Jones and Jamie O’Leary discussing “The Birth-to-Five Policy Landscape: Improving the safety net for our children and their caregivers.”

The CAYL Institute is hosting a webinar on April 4 to discuss funding for, and support of, family child care.

WHAT WE'RE READING (& WATCHING)

Business Insider offers a great “explainer” video on the rising costs of child care in the U.S. On a similar note, American University professor Dr. Taryn Morrissey shares views on the same topic in a video interview with East Texas Now/KLTV.

Axios highlights data suggesting that employer-supported child care benefits pay for themselves, as well as offering examples of companies that provide such benefits like on-site care and monthly stipends.

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

A new study published in Midwifery examined the relationship between how communities educate parents about infant safe sleep practices and breastfeeding, and state-level outcomes for these practices. Both infant safe sleep practices and breastfeeding are cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics as protective factors against Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths. Using data from the 2019 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System and Ohio Pregnancy Assessment Survey, researchers investigated qualitative reports from community partners and quantitative data on outcomes related to safe sleep and breastfeeding.

The study found gaps between the tactics that community programs use to promote these practices, and parents using these practices. According to the study authors, a reason for this could be that it can be difficult to both practice safe sleep practices (not sharing a bed with an infant) and breastfeed. Another possibility is that a lack of social support and policy support (e.g., paid maternity leave) is impacting some parents’ ability to breastfeed. The authors suggest that community partners use a conversational approach in communicating with new parents to understand their unique situation while explaining the research behind infant safe sleep and breastfeeding.

This edition was written by Jamie O’Leary and Janelle Williamson.

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