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. [ ] 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. The Lead Agency, Kansas Department for Children and Families, is a partner on the Early Childhood State Directors Team, with Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Kansas State Department of Education. The Director’s team is part of the Kansas Early Childhood Governance Structure which includes the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, the designated State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care. As part of the advisory council and early childhood system work, needs assessments have been completed to represents a comprehensive view of our early childhood care and education system and these needs inform the early childhood strategic plan. Compensation and financial sustainability of the early childhood professionals is an area of focus in the strategic plan. There are plans for comprehensive studies and the identification of compensation strategies from Kansas communities that may help inform potential local and state investments in this area. A Tactic Work Group for the Early Childhood Recommendation Panel works to develop recommendations to increase compensation and benefits for early childhood care and education professionals. One way that the Lead Agency has been working to help improve compensation is through the Market Rate Survey and Narrow Cost Analysis work, which are used to ensure that the Child Care Assistance, or subsidy, rates are adequate to enable providers to meet the CCDF requirements, including staffing requirements. 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, Kansas Department for Children and Families, is a partner on the Early Childhood State Directors Team, with Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Kansas State Department of Education. The Director’s team is part of the Kansas Early Childhood Governance Structure which includes the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, the designated State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care. As part of the advisory council and early childhood system work, needs assessments have been completed to represents a comprehensive view of our early childhood care and education system and these needs inform the early childhood strategic plan. The support of policies that increase availability of benefit packages (e.g., paid leave, health insurance) for early childhood professionals is an area of focus in the strategic plan. A Tactic Work Group for the Early Childhood Recommendation Panel works to develop recommendations to increase compensation and benefits for early childhood care and education professionals. The Shared Service Network, which is available statewide, can also help programs enhance their shared buying power to access and afford benefit opportunities for their staff more easily. The Shared Service Network is planned to continue. 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’s agreement for Workforce Professional Development agreement includes the development and distribution of a wellness toolkit for early childhood care and education professionals, focused on the mental health of both the professionals and the children they serve. The Lead Agency’s Infant and Toddler Specialist Network agreement includes the provision of mental health cohorts: peer-to-peer learning opportunities for directors and family child care providers to discuss mental-health focused topics. The Infant and Toddler Specialist Network agreement also includes support for early childhood care and education professionals to pursue endorsement through the Kansas Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Both Workforce Professional Development and Infant and Toddler Specialist Network agreements offer trainings on mental health and self-care topics. The Infant and Toddler Specialist Network agreement has a requirement that they implement tiered systems of support through both training and technical assistance to address the need for child care professionals throughout Kansas, in both family and center programs, to support healthy social-emotional development of children and the establishment of positive relationships, which is shaped by the providers well-being and must be included in this effort. These services are planned to continue to the extent possible with funding available. e. Describe any other strategies the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to support providers’ recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. The Workforce Professional Development Advisory Group, which is funded by the Lead Agency, focus includes subgroups addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion; career pathways and review and revisions to the core competencies; components of the workforce registry; and professional development needs assessment. The diversity, equity and inclusion work will inform training needs and practices to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion for child care programs. The purpose of the Early Childhood Advisory Council Recommendations Panel is to advance implementation of the All in for Kansas Kids Strategic Plan. A Tactic Work Group for the Early Childhood Recommendation Panel works to develop recommendations to document and address recruitment and retention challenges. The Lead Agency continues to coordinate in statewide early childhood efforts and use CCDF to fund the development of the career pathway and initial implementation of the workforce registry that will support early childhood and education professionals to access, track and guide career advancement, and increase compensation, recruitment, and retention. Kansas uses CCDF funding to improve the quality of early care and education, retain providers and stabilize the workforce by offering low or no cost professional development and Infant Toddler Specialist Network services at no cost. Financial incentives through the workforce professional development contract include trainer mini grants and scholarships for progression of professional development. Trainer mini grants are designed to expand professional development opportunities for child care workforce population state-wide with priority of funding awards aimed to increase professional development in rural areas. The Lead Agency also supports scholarships towards professional development progression which requires applicants to complete an Individualized Professional Development Plans. Scholarships include progression of professional development through clock-hour training, continuing education unit training, higher education courses to obtain an associate degree, early childhood certification, director’s credential, and Child Development Associate Credential training and application fees. The Infant-Toddler Specialist Network offers financial incentives to providers and programs serving infants and toddlers who need assistance in meeting goals for quality improvements. The Child Care Workforce Professional Development agreement collects data related to recruitment and retention and uses the information to improve and/or enhance the professional development system. They are also required to be part of the support for recruitment and retention initiatives for early childhood educators. These services are planned to continue to the extent possible with funding available. 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. Business practices is a CCDF priority topic in the Lead Agency’s Child Care Workforce Professional Development agreement. A business course for family child care providers and training module on strengthening business practices is offered through our Child Care Workforce Professional Development agreement. Many workforce development trainers are certified or credentialed in Strengthening Business Practices. Infant-Toddler Specialist Network offers training and technical assistance support for child care providers serving infants and toddlers. Infant-Toddler Specialist Network provides outreach to all new child care licensing applicants and sends out a new provider packet followed by contact for technical assistance. Infant-Toddler Specialist Network has an early childhood toolkit course available for new providers to learn about resources and supports that are available. Access is provided to resources for one-year following the course end date for all online courses offered through the Child Care Workforce Professional Development and Infant-Toddler Specialist Network. Infant-Toddler Specialist Network trainings offered virtually, or in-person include relevant resources either by email or hard copy. All courses, regardless of format do include contact information to receive technical assistance or additional resources. Lead Agency partners offer opportunities for business practice courses that are not CCDF funded and include fiscal management, budgeting and recordkeeping. Links to Quality’s Health and Safety Link, which is still in development, includes quality standards for health nutrition, and safety of child care settings and physical activity and physical development in child care settings. The Learning and Development Link includes quality standards for learning environment, teacher/provider- child relationships, and teacher/provider instructional practices. The Family Partnership Link includes quality standards for family partnership and family strengthening. Finally, the Program Administration Link includes quality standards for business related practices. 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. [ ] 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: Lead Agency’s agreement for Child Care Workforce Professional Development require trainers to respond to each learner’s ability and linguistic background. The agreement requires provision of translations and accommodations in all professional development trainings for non-English speaking learners. Online health and safety courses are available in Spanish and are monitored by a Spanish-speaking trainer. In-person trainers will utilize translators on staff or within the community when not available through the contractor. Early childhood care and education professionals can utilize Google Translate; licensing specialists have access to the bilingual hotline at any time. Consumer education materials, child care provider forms, and licensing applications and information are available in English and Spanish. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: All CCDF funded online and in-person courses adhere to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Child Care Workforce Professional Development agreement provides opportunities for providers to identify disabilities during course enrollment. Accommodations are made based on individual abilities. Accommodations include interpreters for the deaf or auxiliary aid for hard of hearing. The Department for Children and Families public website has a link to the Kansas Commission for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing that offers resources and support for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech and language impairments. Online trainers can sometimes identify those individuals who are struggling and will offer individualized assistance for the discussion and response requirements of the course