6.2 Professional Development Framework

A Lead Agency must have a professional development framework for training, professional development, and post-secondary education for caregivers, teachers, and directors in child care programs that serve children of all ages. The framework must include these components: (1) professional standards and competencies, (2) career pathways, (3) advisory structures, (4) articulation, (5) workforce information, and (6) financing. CCDF provides Lead Agencies flexibility on the strategies, breadth, and depth of the framework. The professional development framework must be developed in consultation with the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care or a similar coordinating body. 6.2.1 Updates and consultation a. Did the Lead Agency make any updates to the professional development framework since the FFY 2022-2024 CCDF Plan was submitted? [x] Yes. If yes, describe the elements of the framework that were updated and describe if and how the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care (if applicable) or similar coordinating body was consulted: In 2023 OSSE added two new core knowledge areas related to self-care and well-being: 1) personal development and self-care; and 2) financial literacy. OSSE engaged the DC Child Care Provider Working Group to review and discuss the proposed new core knowledge areas for which educators can earn professional learning units. The Child Care Provider Working Group highlighted the importance of having the two new core knowledge areas to meet the health and wellness needs of early educators. Early educators and other stakeholders also provided feedback emphasizing the importance of self-care and financial literacy through feedback received in meetings and surveys. While OSSE began offering training on these topics prior to formalizing these areas as core knowledge areas, it is important for early educators to earn professional learning units for participating in related training. [ ]No. b. Did the Lead Agency consult with other key groups in the development of their professional development framework? [x] Yes. If yes, identify the other key groups: OSSE collaborated with child care providers and community stakeholders on the development and approval of the two new core knowledge areas. [ ] No. 6.2.2 Description of the professional development framework a. Describe how the Lead Agency’s framework for training and professional development addresses the following required elements: i. Professional standards and competencies. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about which roles in early childhood education are included (such as teachers, directors, infant and toddler specialists, mental health consultants, coaches, licensors, QIS assessors, family service workers, home visitors). OSSE’s professional standards and competencies, also known as core knowledge areas for early educators, are designed to facilitate a trajectory of learning to support the effectiveness and professional growth of all members of the early learning workforce, including teachers, directors, infant and toddler specialists, mental health consultants, coaches, licensing specialists, quality facilitators, etc. The core knowledge areas build on minimum credential and degree requirements for directors, teachers, assistant teachers, home caregivers, and associate home caregivers established in OSSE’s child development facility licensing regulations and are integrated into professional development opportunities supported by OSSE and approved trainers. The knowledge and skills included in the core knowledge areas are aligned with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation, the CDA Competency Standards, DC Early Learning Standards, DCPS Effective Schools Framework, and the Federal Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. The core knowledge areas include: 1) Child Growth and Development; 2) Observing, Documenting, and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families; 3) Health, Safety, and Nutrition; 4) Curriculum; 5) Inclusive Practices; 6) Learning Environments; 7) Building Family and Community Relationships; 8) Diversity: Family, Language, Culture, and Society; 9) Program Management, Operation, and Evaluation; 10) Professionalism and Advocacy; 11) Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health; 12) Personal Development and Self-Care; and 13) Financial Literacy. In addition to the core knowledge areas, OSSE’s licensing regulations address both mandatory trainings for all newly hired child care staff and ongoing annual professional development requirements to ensure that all early learning workforce members have an understanding of basic standards of child health, safety, and development and receive annual maintenance training in these areas, as well as in additional topic areas such as developmentally appropriate methods of positive behavior intervention and support and inclusion of children with special needs, consistent with the requirements of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). ii. Career pathways. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about professional development registries, career ladders, and levels. OSSE’s child care licensing standards and supports for early childhood educators provide multiple pathways for early educators to meet minimum education requirements for their roles and advance in the profession. Data on current early educators’ roles, credentials, and compliance with or progress towards meeting minimum education requirements are tracked in the Division of Early Learning Licensing Tool (DELLT), which in turn is integrated with OSSE’s Learning Management System (LMS), a comprehensive learning management platform that supports educators working with learners birth through grade 12 across all sectors of the District’s public education and early learning system (DCPS, public charter schools, and licensed child development facilities) to access high-quality professional development content and maintain a record of their professional learning. Together, DELLT and the OSSE LMS fulfill the functions of a professional development registry for the District and enable OSSE to track data on the early learning workforce by role, credential, employer, participation in professional development, and other key indicators. All staff working with children in licensed child development facilities must be entered into DELLT and upon entry into DELLT are automatically provided access to the OSSE LMS within 24 hours. Early childhood professionals working in roles not included in DELLT may request access from OSSE. In December 2023, OSSE revised its licensing regulations to recognize and clarify additional career pathways for early childhood educators working in licensed child development facilities, including pathways that allow educators to work in a role while enrolled in a degree or certificate program to earn required credentials, recognition of degrees and credentials earned in other states and countries, and a pathway for educators with at least 10 years continuous service to remain in their roles without being required to complete additional coursework. These pathways were developed in consultation with the early learning community and designed to address common barriers in order to cultivate a pipeline of future qualified early educators and provide opportunities for current early educators to advance in their careers without leaving their current roles. OSSE offers scholarships for CDA credentials, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees to enable early educators to meet the requirements for their current role and advance in the field. OSSE offers credential verification/certification for individual workforce members to verify the roles their specific education/credentials qualify them for, and that information is captured in DELLT. OSSE conducts extensive communications efforts to share information with early childhood professionals about the general responsibilities, minimum education requirements, and professional development and advancement opportunities available for each designated position in licensed child development facilities (e.g., teacher, assistant teacher, director, home or expanded home provider, associate home caregiver). OSSE has developed user-friendly resource pages and fact sheets for early childhood education professionals that include links to available programs and resources for earning required credentials or degrees. Early childhood professionals can also contact OSSE’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) Help Desk via phone or email for live, customized support, technical assistance in navigating career pathways and options, and for support connecting to resources and degree or credential programs. OSSE also partners with multiple entities, including employers, professional associations, and advocacy groups, to share information with early education professionals representing the diversity of the District’s early learning sector, get input on career pathways and resources, and connect educators to resources and supports. iii. Advisory structure. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about how the professional development advisory structure interacts with the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care. The Program Quality Committee of the State Early Childhood Development Coordinating Council (SECDCC) is responsible for advising OSSE on strategic priorities and programming relating to recruiting, retaining, developing, and supporting the early learning workforce. Specifically, this group focuses on recruitment and retention, professional development, and support for meeting the minimum education requirements. The SECDCC program quality subcommittee makes recommendations to OSSE, SECDCC, and child development facilities in areas related to program quality. This group meets quarterly and provides feedback and input to OSSE on overall early learning workforce strategy and theory of change as well as specific topics and programs. OSSE also consults with the DC Head Start Association regarding early learning workforce policies and their implementation that affect Head Start programs and with the Child Care Recovery Working Group, a group of child care program leaders convened to serve as an advisory body for OSSE. OSSE also convenes the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force on issues related to financing and intersections between professional development, credentials, and compensation policies. OSSE meets with CDA administrators and institutions of higher education (IHEs) monthly to discuss ongoing needs related to their programs, program improvements, enrollment, and professional development. CDA administrators’ committee meetings are attended by CDA Training and Preparation Program leaders and the Council for Professional Recognition, which issues the CDA credential. The monthly IHE meetings are attended by department leadership and registrar representatives from colleges and universities that partner with the DC Leading Educators toward Advanced Degrees (DC LEAD) program. OSSE shares updates on the minimum education requirements for early childhood educators and ideas on how IHEs can adjust their programming and align training and education opportunities to help educators meet the minimum education requirements. OSSE also solicits input from public and stakeholder audiences on key policies, including any regulatory changes, and conducts surveys through its workforce programs and its ECE Help Desk to get input on the needs of the early learning workforce, identify hurdles preventing early childhood educators and prospective early childhood educators from accessing existing resources, and inform strategies for improvement. iv. Articulation. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about articulation agreements, and collaborative agreements that support progress in degree acquisition. OSSE supports articulation agreements with partnering IHEs through DC LEAD grant program. The DC LEAD program grantee established articulation agreements with IHE partners to award college credits (between three to 12 hours, depending on partner institution and degree) to early educators who have obtained CDA credentials issued by the Council for Professional Recognition. v. Workforce information. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about workforce demographics, educator well-being, retention/turnover surveys, actual wage scales, and/or access to benefits. Information on the workforce is collected in OSSE’s DELLT for educators and facility leadership. This information includes name, role, birth date, date of hire, separation date (if applicable), education credential(s), language, salary, benefits, and address. DELLT is integrated with the OSSE LMS, a comprehensive learning management platform that supports educators working with learners’ birth through grade 12 across all sectors of the District’s public education and early learning system (DCPS, public charter schools, and licensed child development facilities) to access high-quality professional development content and maintain a record of their professional learning. All early educators in DELLT are automatically provided access to the OSSE LMS to access and maintain a record of participation in training and professional development. Together, DELLT and the OSSE LMS fulfill the functions of a professional development registry for the District and enable OSSE to track data on the early learning workforce by role, credential, employer, participation in professional development, and other key indicators. vi. Financing. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about strategies including scholarships, apprenticeships, wage enhancements, etc. OSSE uses federal and local funds to provide professional development and continuing education opportunities to the early learning workforce. CCDF and local funds support a variety of workforce development programs including in-person training courses, unlimited access to an online learning platform, scholarships for CDA training and preparation programs, and college tuition scholarships. b. Does the Lead Agency use additional elements? [x] Yes. If yes, describe the element(s). Check all that apply. i. [ ] Continuing education unit trainings and credit-bearing professional development. Describe: ii. [x] Engagement of training and professional development providers, including higher education, in aligning training and educational opportunities with the Lead Agency's framework. Describe: The Program Quality subcommittee of the SECDCC supports this engagement and review of offerings to ensure alignment with the framework. Additionally, OSSE funds a grantee to administer the TAP, which supports the delivery of quality professional development aligned with the District’s core knowledge areas by certifying individual and organizational professional development trainers that provide ongoing training and professional development opportunities that are aligned to the 13 core knowledge areas and support the specific knowledge and skills needed by early childhood professionals to work effectively with all young children and families. TAP-certified trainers must maintain and provide documentation of ongoing professional development, as well as information on professional development that they offer quarterly. TAP approval lasts for three years, upon which time certified trainers must renew and provide supporting documentation related to their ongoing professional development and training offered as well. OSSE also offers ongoing learning opportunities that TAP-certified trainers may participate in to further expand their expertise. OSSE meets with CDA administrators and IHEs monthly to discuss ongoing needs related to their programs, program improvements, and professional development. The CDA administrator's committee meetings are attended by CDA training and preparation program leaders and the Council for Professional Recognition, which issues the CDA credential. The monthly IHE meetings are attended by DC LEAD partnering colleges and universities. iii. [ ] Other. Describe: [ ] No. 6.2.3 Impact of the Professional Development Framework Describe how the framework improves the quality, diversity, stability, and retention of caregivers, teachers, and directors and identify what data are available to assess the impact. a. Professional standards and competencies. For example, do the professional standards and competencies reflect the diversity of providers across role, child care setting, or age of children served? Professional development standards and competencies were developed to ensure that they reflect the diversity of providers in terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, role, setting, ages served, and level of experience on a given topic. As such, trainings are offered at various levels (i.e., basic, intermediate, advanced), which are identified in the OSSE LMS. Additionally, trainings offered are tagged to identify roles that are relevant to the training offered (i.e., directors, administrators, teachers, assistant teachers, home caregivers, associate home caregivers, OST staff, early care, and education staff serving school-age children, instructional coaches, trainers, other early childhood support roles) as well as by age groups of children for which they are relevant. OSSE adopted two new core knowledge areas related to health and well-being based on stakeholder feedback, to promote increased retention and well-being across the diversity of early educators in the District’s workforce. To better meet the needs of facility leaders, OSSE and its partners in the DC Early Childhood Education Business Collaboratory are finalizing a set of core competencies for business practices for facility leadership that will be supported by professional development playlists on those topics and based on facility type (e.g., center vs. home) and level of knowledge. b. Career pathways. For example, has the Lead Agency developed a wage ladder that provides progressively higher wages as early educators gain more experience and credentials? What types of child care settings and staff roles are addressed in career pathways, such as licensed centers and family child care homes? In December 2023, OSSE revised the District’s child development facility licensing regulations to provide early childhood educators additional pathways and flexibility to meet education requirements for their staff types. The education requirements provide a career pathway for advancement among staff roles based on the completion of additional credentials or degrees for directors, teachers, assistant teachers, home caregivers, and associate home caregivers. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, the District’s early educator compensation initiative, provides funding to child development facilities that opt into the program to raise wages or salaries of eligible educators, based on their staff type (i.e., teacher, assistant teacher, expanded home caregiver, home caregiver, associate home caregiver) and level of education completed. In FY24, OSSE published a schedule of required minimum salaries, by staff role and credential, that providers participating in the program must meet or exceed for all eligible early educators. To comply with local legislative requirements, OSSE developed a voluntary compensation scale that includes education level and years of experience that facilities may use to further increase wages or salaries of staff. In FY25, OSSE will implement the program in accordance with the recommendations of the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force to be submitted to the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia in September 2024. OSSE collects education credential information in DELLT for all child care facility leaders and educators, and reports on the percentage of the workforce meeting the minimum education requirements quarterly. The share of educators meeting minimum education requirements has increased over time, including as a result of changes made to licensing regulations in December 2023. Between October 2023 and April 2024, the share of directors, teachers, and assistant teachers meeting minimum education requirements increased by two percent, 28 percent, and 37 percent, respectively. The share of home caregivers, expanded home caregivers, and associate caregivers meeting minimum education requirements increased by 1 percent, 22 percent, and 31 percent, respectively. In each of these staff types, the share of educators meeting the education requirements is between 69 and 89 percent. Additionally, OSSE collects wage and salary data for eligible staff in facilities participating in the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund quarterly. c. Advisory structure. For example, has the advisory structure identified goals for child care workforce compensation, including types of staff and target compensation levels? Does the Lead Agency have a Preschool Development Birth-to-Five grant and is part of its scope of work child care compensation activities? Are they represented in the advisory structure? In 2021, the District launched the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force, which was tasked with informing the development of an employee compensation scale for child development providers, proposing an employee compensation scale for early childhood development providers that accounts for employee roles, credentials, and experience, and providing recommendations for implementing the employee compensation scale. The Task Force recommendations were included in legislation authorizing the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. In February 2024, the District reconvened the Early Childhood Educator Compensation Task Force to help inform the continued implementation of the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. The CDA administrators committee identified the need for a CDA practice exam and supported the development of a practice exam as a committee. Additionally, two partners supported translating the practice exam into Spanish and Amharic to ensure it is accessible to scholars participating in CDA cohorts in English, Spanish, and Amharic. The IHE partner meetings have been used to revisit and make recommendations related to post-secondary certificates for early childhood professionals who need credit hours in early childhood. As a result, three partnering universities have developed and/or improved certificate programs. The IHE partner meetings also led to streamlining data sharing agreements between OSSE, our grantee, and six partnering IHEs to ensure access to up-to-date and accurate scholar education data. d. Articulation. For example, how does the advisory structure include training and professional development for providers, including higher education, to assist in aligning training and education opportunities? The SECDCC program quality subcommittee makes recommendations to OSSE, SECDCC, and child development facilities in areas related to program quality. These recommendations include aligning training and education opportunities across the professional development system and programs in which the early learning workforce engages. Updates to professional development offerings have been made based on feedback from the program quality subcommittee. OSSE also meets with CDA administrators and IHEs monthly to discuss ongoing needs related to their programs, program improvements, and professional development. The CDA administrators’ committee meetings are attended by CDA Training and Preparation program leaders and the Council for Professional Recognition, which issues the CDA credential. During these meetings, participants provide updates related to their respective programs and share needs, upcoming events, professional development, and available support and resources. OSSE and IHEs use this time to discuss current and future needs. OSSE shares updates on the minimum education requirements for early childhood educators and ideas on how IHEs can adjust their programming and align training and education opportunities to help educators meet the minimum education requirements. OSSE reviews data on early learning workforce credentials on a quarterly basis and publishes this information in a report available on the website. CDA administrators also share their program enrollment information for reference. e. Workforce information. For example, does the Lead Agency have data on the existing wages and benefits available to the child care workforce? Do any partners such as the Quality Improvement System, child care resource and referral agencies, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and universities and research organizations collect compensation and benefits data? Does the Lead Agency monitor child care workforce wages and access to benefits through ongoing data collection and evaluation? Can the data identify any disparities in the existing compensation and benefits (by geography, role, child care setting, race, ethnicity, gender, or age of children served)? Workforce data is collected in DELLT. Salary and benefit information is also included in DELLT and for child care providers participating in the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, data on workforce wages is required to be reported and records are reviewed quarterly. Additionally, OSSE has a partnership with the Urban Institute, funded by a federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation to look at early learning workforce, turnover, and satisfaction. f. Financing. For example, has the Lead Agency set a minimum or living wage as a floor for all child care staff? Do Lead Agency-provider subsidy agreements contain requirements for staff compensation levels? Do Lead Agencies provide program-level compensation grants to support staff base salaries and benefits? Does the Lead Agency administer bonuses or stipends directly to workers? All child development facilities must comply with District and/or federal laws and requirements regarding worker wages and hours that apply to all employers, including the Fair Shot Minimum Wage Act of 2016. Child care providers participating in the District's Child Care Subsidy Program must also comply with the Living Wage Act of 2006. Child care providers participating in the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund agree to pay minimum salaries set by OSSE based on their role and education credentials and receive quarterly awards to raise wages/salaries for their educators.