7.1 Quality Activities Needs Assessment

7.1.1 Needs assessment process and findings a. Describe the Lead Agency needs assessment process for expending CCDF funds on activities to improve the quality of child care, including the frequency of assessment, how a diverse range of parents and providers were consulted, and how their views are incorporated: IdahoSTARS engages child care providers through a variety of beneficiary voice activities to support the project’s program development, guide our implementation, and gauge our impact. It is through beneficiary voice activities that we understand the needs of child care providers in our state. Beneficiary voice activities can involve general or targeted groups of child care providers participating in listening sessions, interviews, surveys, and the completion of feedback loops. Steps to Quality, the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), has utilized all forms of beneficiary voice activities to inform a QRIS restructure. Utilizing beneficiary voice activities with child care providers has contributed to our understanding of how our QRIS can better meet the needs of child care programs. IdahoSTARS is committed to utilizing beneficiary voice in our process to identify the needs of child care providers. We regularly hold listening session wherein we engage child care providers with broad, open-ended questions about our supports and services. We respect their expertise as users of our systems and use their feedback to inform our decision making. Providers are invited to listening session via email and phone call. The transcripts of the listening sessions are reviewed by teams of staff members to identify common themes, the themes are then sent out to the listening session participants to confirm that we are correctly interpreting their feedback. Then we use those themes to inform our decision making. b. Describe the findings of the assessment, including any findings related to needs of different populations and types of providers, and if any overarching goals for quality improvement were identified: Through our Beneficiary Voice Activities, we have identified the following overarching needs from providers: 1. Child care providers want their work to be valued and supported by their peers, directors, families and IdahoSTARS. 2. Child care providers value professional development as a Providers have distinct communication preferences and when IdahoSTARS is unaware of those preferences, users do not ￿receive’ information that is important to them. 3. Child care providers value the RISE Application as a tool. They have concerns about the ease of navigation based on language preference, access to technology & technological fluency. 4. Providers also have recommendations for improvement ways to learn new information, refresh knowledge and improve their skills/practice in order to better serve their families. 5. Financial incentives are helpful and motivating. Incentives make providers feel recognized and appreciated. 6. Providers find value in relationship based supports like coaching and TTA. These supports are valuable when they are consistent, responsive, reliable, well-informed and able to provide personalized support. 7. Providers struggle to navigate IdahoSTARS systems without individualized support from an IdahoSTARS staff member. During our listening sessions we have identified the following needs: 1. Child care providers want their work to be valued and supported by their peers, directors, families and IdahoSTARS. 2. Child care providers value professional development as a way to learn new information, refresh knowledge and improve their skills/practice in order to better serve their families. 3. Financial incentives are helpful and motivating. Incentives make providers feel recognized and appreciated. 4. Providers find value in relationship based supports like coaching and TTA. These supports are valuable when they are consistent, responsive, reliable, well-informed and able to provide personalized support. 5. Providers struggle to navigate IdahoSTARS systems without individualized support from an IdahoSTARS staff member. 6. Providers have distinct communication preferences and when IdahoSTARS is unaware of those preferences, users do not ￿receive’ information that is important to them. 7. Child care providers value the RISE Application as a tool. They have concerns about the ease of navigation based on language preference, access to technology & technological fluency. Providers also have recommendations for improvement.