6.1 Supporting the Child Care Workforce

Lead Agencies have broad flexibility to implement policies and practices to support the child care workforce. 6.1.1 Strategies to improve recruitment, retention, compensation, and well-being a. Identify any Lead Agency activities related to strengthening workforce recruitment and retention of child care providers. Check all that apply: i. [ ] Providing program-level grants to support investments in staff compensation. ii. [ ] Providing bonuses or stipends paid directly to staff, like sign-on or retention bonuses. iii. [ ] Connecting family child care providers and center-based child care staff to health insurance or supporting premiums in the Marketplace. iv. [ ] Subsidizing family child care provider and center-based child care staff retirement benefits. v. [ ] Providing paid sick, personal, and parental leave for family child care providers and center-based child care staff. vi. [ ] Providing student loan debt relief or loan repayment for family child care providers and center-based child care staff. vii. [x] Providing scholarships or tuition support for center-based child care staff and family child care providers. viii. [x] Other. Describe: The AR Resource Connections website (https://www.areceresources.org/marketing-home/) is a customized state version of ECE Shared Resources, an online early childhood clearinghouse developed by CCA for Social Good to support child care quality. This free digital solution for Arkansas providers offers early educators, child care program owners and directors, family child care providers, and early childhood education support staff access to over 2,000 innovative, practical tools, handbooks, policies and guidance on important topics such as budgeting, best practices, human resources, indoor and outdoor safety, emergency preparedness, and more. The resources were developed with one goal in mind- to save valuable time and money so professionals can focus on providing high-quality child care. In addition, Arkansas’s plan leverages new community-based local early childhood lead organizations to coordinate with local governments and community organizations to broaden the reach and impact of services. These organizations serve as community-based planning and feedback systems to determine how future financial support can be used to expand and improve the quality of infant, toddler, and pre-kindergarten classrooms and the workforce that serves in these classrooms. These local early childhood lead organizations can inform the Office of Early Childhood and the State Board of Education on ideas, pilot programs, and lessons learned to increase access, improve and sustain quality programs, provide feedback on systems that support these priorities and enable development of the early childhood workforce. The local leads will be enlisted in co-developing strategic plans for longer term changes in Early Childhood programs that will support alignment with LEARNS priority areas. Additionally, future plans will include intensifying efforts to support higher-quality standards across all provider settings and further developing our workforce through targeted professional development opportunities and concurrent credit programs in high-schools in partnership with local higher education institutions. Finally, strategic planning for development of a robust data system to track and analyze child outcomes, provider quality, and program efficiency will ensure systematic feedback and align with accountability measures proposed in LEARNS. b. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to assess and improve the compensation of the child care workforce in the State or Territory, including increasing wages, bonuses, and stipends. Arkansas adopted a change in the child care assistance requirements to support individuals employed in early childhood programs. Income guidelines are waived for child care workers to participate in the program if they work for an Arkansas licensed or registered CCDF Program Participant and/or other outside employment/education/job skills training to equal twenty (20) hours or more per week. Each adult in the household must work an average of twenty (20) hours or more per week. Children requiring care must attend an approved CCDF Participating Program and cannot be in the same classroom with their parent/caregiver as the teacher. In addition to child care subsidy support, child care workers who elect to participate in the TEACH program are eligible to receive bonuses following achievement of specific goals. c. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to expand access to benefits, including health insurance, paid sick, personal, and parental leave, and retirement benefits. Arkansas Resource Connections members have access to Docs by Phone, a telehealth service that offers affordable options for medical expenses, mental health support, and savings in prescriptions. Employers can purchase plans for their team or individual employees can purchase a plan. d. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to support the mental health and well-being of the child care workforce. The lead agency is leveraging Preschool Development Grant B-5 funding to support the mental health and well-being of the child care workforce. To address the immediate short-term needs, the state is partnering with an existing Arkansas program, UAMS’s AR ConnectNow. Developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, AR ConnectNow is a comprehensive, telehealth-based behavioral health treatment program designed to provide highly accessible, timely care to any Arkansan struggling with behavioral health issues. The state will build upon the foundation of the existing AR ConnectNow to improve access to timely, appropriate, and high-quality behavioral health care, specifically targeted to child care providers. Through the PDG grant, the state will expand on the existing AR ConnectNow services to allow it to function similar to an Employee Assistance Program for ECE by developing a marketing campaign directly to the ECE workforce, building stress management skills through support groups, and connecting the workforce to services that address barriers to mental health treatment and concrete needs (e.g., insurance, housing, food). PDG funds will be utilized to contract for staffing this program, including mental health professionals to lead regular no-cost virtual skill-building groups to support ECE providers and parents. They will also offer care management services to address treatment connection and concrete needs. e. Describe any other strategies the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to support providers’ recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. Arkansas is using a number of methods to support recruiting and retaining the workforce. With Preschool Development Grant B-5 funding, the state convened a learning network facilitated by Leading for Children specifically to address workforce concerns. The group will develop recommendations for consideration by the end of the award in 2025. The recommendations, along with new and revised professional development opportunities, and the Arkansas Resource Connections website support providers’ recruitment and retention efforts. 6.1.2 Strategies to support provider business practices a. Describe other strategies that the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to strengthen child care providers’ business management and administrative practices. The state utilizes the Program Administration Scale (PAS) for centers and the Business Administration Scale (BAS) for family child care programs. The scales assess management, leadership, and business practices of the program. Training is available to support administrators in using the PAS and BAS. The state also offers the Strengthening Business Practices workshops developed by the National Center on Early Childhood Quality to support administrators as they design and implement effective business practices as a foundation for a healthy business. Modules include budgets, financial reports, marketing, and recruiting and retaining staff. b. Check the topics addressed in the Lead Agency’s strategies for strengthening child care providers’ administrative business practices. Check all that apply: i. [x] Fiscal management. ii. [x] Budgeting. iii. [x] Recordkeeping. iv. [x] Hiring, developing, and retaining qualified staff. v. [x] Risk management. vi. [x] Community relationships. vii. [x] Marketing and public relations. viii. [x] Parent-provider communications. ix. [x] Use of technology in business administration. x. [ ] Compliance with employment and labor laws. xi. [ ] Other. Describe any other efforts to strengthen providers’ administrative business: 6.1.3 Strategies to support provider participation Lead Agencies must facilitate participation of child care providers and staff with limited English proficiency and disabilities in the child care subsidy system. Describe how the Lead Agency will facilitate this participation, including engagement with providers to identify barriers and specific strategies used to support their participation: a. Providers and staff with limited English proficiency: The Lead Agency supports providers with limited English proficiency through a variety of methods including: 1) employing staff who are fluent in other languages that can assist providers; 2) contracting with a university that can connect providers to translation services in a variety of languages; and 3) providing professional development and educational resources in other languages. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: The Lead Agency is committed to making its electronic and information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998. The ADE Office of Early Childhood, Arkansas Professional Development Registry, and Better Beginnings websites are accessible. In addition, the state hosts a monthly Provider Call through Zoom that is also posted to YouTube with closed captioning.