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. [ ] Providing scholarships or tuition support for center-based child care staff and family child care providers. viii. [x] Other. Describe: Mississippi is focused on creating and maintaining a highly qualified early childhood workforce by developing a professional learning system that provides early childhood professionals - teachers, directors, mental health specialists, and other specialists - with a foundation in child development knowledge, enabling them to expand their knowledge and build a highly qualified workforce. The Lead Agency has implemented a state-wide professional development registry, Lift-ED, that captures pre-service and ongoing in-service training of early childhood teachers. With Lift-ED in place, Mississippi is better positioned to make informed decisions about how to support our early childhood workforce through multiple professional development platforms and credential building opportunities. Mississippi intends to develop a career ladder that builds a foundation of child development knowledge and practice, then builds on that foundation through continuing education (i.e., training and on-site technical assistance). The Lead Agency is also working to address the issue of wage disparity surrounding those working in early childhood education by partnering with the Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies and the Mississippi Forum for the Future to examine the pay structure of the state’s early childhood workforce and determine what the cost to compensate teachers in early childhood programs properly. 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 used temporary American Rescue Plan funds to issue temporary bonuses to teachers working in child care programs that accept subsidy. However, without additional funding (federal or state) the Lead Agency will not be in position to improve the compensation of the child care workforce including increasing wages, bonuses, and stipends. Until additional funding potentially becomes available, the Lead Agency has convened a work group to study wage data of child care teachers in Mississippi and explore how the disparate wage situation might be addressed. 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. Without additional funding (federal or state) the Lead Agency will not be in position to expand access to benefits, including health insurance, paid sick, personal, and parental leave, and retirement benefits. Until additional funding potentially becomes available, the Lead Agency has convened a work group to study wage data of child care teachers in Mississippi and explore ways to address the lack of benefits within the state's child care teacher community. 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 partners with the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center (MECIC) to offer credential courses to child care teachers and directors. The MECIC social-emotional credential courses address the stress that early educators often experience as a response to challenging behaviors in the early learning environment. Helping teachers learn best practices for responding to challenging behaviors, includes self-care, learning how to pause and reflect. Reflect on the emotions the teacher is feeling, as well as, reflecting on the meaning of the behavior, focusing on what happened before the behavior occurred. MECIC also offers an additional professional development course: Provider Self-Care: Addressing Mental Health Supports for Early Educators explores self-care and reflective practices that promote healthy mental health for adults is provided. The Lead Agency also partners with the Nurturing Homes Initiative (NHI) at Mississippi State University Extension Service to provide extensive training and technical assistance to family home providers. NHI provides training to family home providers that specifically targets self-care, including mental health, for these providers. The training is called "Taking Care of Self Before Taking Care of Others". This training focuses on the multifaceted role of family child care providers and emphasizes the critical importance of self-care in sustaining their ability to fulfill these responsibilities. Family child care providers take on numerous roles￿educator, cook, nurse, bookkeeper, mentor, janitor, and more. However, the demands of caring for others can become overwhelming if they do not prioritize their own well-being. The training explores the concept of self-care as the practice of taking deliberate action to preserve and improve one’s health and well- being. It highlights that self-care is not selfish, but a necessary foundation for maintaining the ability to care for the children and families they serve. In the training, providers engage in activities designed to help them identify personal barriers to self-care and develop actionable self-care plans. Activities include: writing down worries and symbolically shredding them to release mental burdens, creating a self-care action plan that includes practical steps such as making to-do lists, setting boundaries for communication, finding moments for relaxation and resetting, incorporating movement into their day, and discovering healthy ways to decompress after work. e. Describe any other strategies the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to support providers’ recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. Mississippi is focused on creating and maintaining a highly qualified early childhood workforce by developing a professional learning system that provides early childhood professionals - teachers, directors, mental health specialists, and other specialists - with a foundation in child development knowledge, enabling them to expand their knowledge and build a highly qualified workforce. The Lead Agency has implemented a state-wide professional development registry, Lift-ED, that captures pre-service and ongoing in-service training of early childhood teachers. With Lift-ED in place, Mississippi is better positioned to make informed decisions about how to support our early childhood workforce through multiple professional development platforms and credential building opportunities. Mississippi intends to develop a career ladder that builds a foundation of child development knowledge and practice, then builds on that foundation through continuing education (i.e., training and on-site technical assistance). The Lead Agency is also working to address the issue of wage disparity surrounding those working in early childhood education by partnering with the Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies and the Mississippi Forum for the Future to examine the pay structure of the state’s early childhood workforce and determine what the cost to compensate teachers in early childhood programs properly. 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 offers business training and on-site technical assistance to child care owners and directors. This training includes the Mississippi Director’s Credential program, financial management training workshops, and family child care business model training. Topics included in financial management training for licensed child care programs include Managing Tuition and Payroll, Marketing Your Child Care Program, Mastering the Budget, Now Hiring: Boosting Recruitment During Child Care, Staffing Crisis, Staffing & Turnover Post COVID ￿ 19, The Enrollment Factor, Unlocking the Power of Online Marketing, Teacher Motivation, Communicating with Parents, Taking Care of Children and Me! The following topics are included in financial management training for family home providers offered through the Nurturing Homes Initiative (NHI): Income & Benefits, Work Environment, Fiscal Management, Recordkeeping, Risk Management, Provider-Family Communications, Family Support & Engagement, Marketing & Community Relations, Provider as Employer. 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. [x] Other. Describe any other efforts to strengthen providers’ administrative business: The Lead Agency offers a MS Directors Credential Training totaling 135 hours of professional development and MS Directors Credential - Renewal Training. 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 provides translations services for all application and other client services in Vietnamese and Spanish. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: The Lead Agency partners with the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center (MECIC) to offer professional development to providers and staff. MECIC employs best practices for meeting adult learning needs, including adults with disabilities by designing professional development and coaching with Universal Design for Learning principles. All activities and materials can be adapted to meet provider needs.