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. [x] Providing program-level grants to support investments in staff compensation. ii. [x] 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. [ ] Other. Describe: 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. Over the past three years, Illinois has transitioned from stabilizing the child care sector during the pandemic to actively investing in the child care workforce. Building on previous initiatives such as Child Care Restoration Grants, Strengthen and Grow Child Care Grants, and Smart Start Transition Grants, the Smart Start Workforce Grants program aims to directly increase wages across the child care field. These grants provide financial support to child care programs, enabling them to pay teachers a required wage floor without increasing tuition costs for families. This innovative approach helps programs recruit and retain qualified teachers while keeping child care affordable for families. 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. The lead agency works with the home providers union (SEIU) to provide any home provider receiving CCAP payments access to health insurance benefits. Future plans are to work with SEIU to implement paid leaves (for any reason), retirement benefits and rate add-ons based on years of service. 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 contracts with the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA) and the Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to provide training offerings to the child care workforce. The CCR&R trainings are driven based on the needs of the community and service delivery area. In addition, they support with a standardized curriculum offering through the Illinois Trainers Network that is administered by INCCRRA. The Lead Agency continues to support and contract with three grantees that conduct the Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health consultation program that supports the child care workforce in Illinois. This program provides consultation, technical assistance, and training to the child care workforce in partnership with the CCR&Rs. The Lead Agency works with the Professional Development Advisory Council and the Child Care Advisory Council to continue to guage the needs across the child care workforce in Illinois. These groups advise the Lead Agency by developing recommendations for consideration that encompass strategies to support the needs for the child care workforce. There has been a proposal submitted by Illinois for the next round of PDG B-5 funds beginning January 2025 that supports well being supports for the early childhood workforce. If approved, the Lead Agency will work to support implementation efforts utilizing the available funding. Additionally, the Lead Agency continues to partner with the CCR&Rs to conduct needs assessments with providers across the state to inform the Lead Agency on areas of support. e. Describe any other strategies the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to support providers’ recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. Child Care Resource & Referral agencies along with INCCRRA work to recruit and retain providers and the workforce members within their designated Service Delivery Area. Activities include, but are not limited to: targeted recruitment, collaboration with partner agencies, start-up workshops, welcome packets and providing technical assistance and training that meet the needs of the communities they serve. The Lead Agency is conducting a cross sector workforce recruitment campaign to attract staff in the child care, Early Intervention, and Home Visiting job settings. 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 Lead Agency ensures the availability of Business Administration Scale training for family child care and the Program Administration Scale training for child care centers. In addition, CCR&R agencies provide technical assistance and consultation and often host business practice training for providers. Program management is a standard with requirements in the ExceleRate Illinois quality rating improvement system. The following Gateways credentials require business and management content: Illinois Directors Credential and Family Child Care Credential. In addition, the Illinois Trainers Network (ITN) offers trainings that include strengthening business practices. These trainings include Foundations of Family Child Care, Strengthening Business Practices for Family Child Care, and Strengthening Business Practices for Centers. Additionally, the Lead Agency provides funds to the Service Employees International Union’s Member Education and Training Center to offer trainings for providers. 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. [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 produces provider communications and notices in English and Spanish. Spanish speakers are available at CCR&Rs and Sites where needed. Training is available for Spanish speakers (in person or online). The Lead Agency has materials and issues licenses to Spanish speaking family child care home providers. Local CCR&Rs collect information about primary and other languages spoken in licensed child care centers and exempt centers and homes that choose to be on the referral database. If available, CCR&Rs can provide child care referrals for families requesting caregivers that speak a language other than English. Also, in Illinois an option for families eligible for child care assistance is to arrange care with family, friends, or neighbors (license-exempt family child care). These providers typically speak the primary language of the family and the child. The Illinois Early Learning Project has Early Learning Standards tip sheets in eight different languages. The state has developed a system to identify and support multilingual providers through the use of a State Seal of Bi-literacy. Providers can add this designation to the Gateways Registry. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: Illinois supports providers, including those with disabilities, that demonstrate they have the physical and mental health capacity that does not interfere with child care responsibilities. For licensed providers, this is verified through the physical examination report. The Lead Agency provides links to families on the accessibility resources, for example, Illinois Relay, that are available via their websites. We will make reasonable accommodations through the CCR&Rs for any providers/staff on a case by case basis for those individuals with disabilities.