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. [x] 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 Child Care Excellence Academy is a five-month paid training program for individuals interested in becoming a child care professional. The program is a full time program intended to increase wages that ensures pay at $17/hour for program placements and includes early childhood training, project hours, wraparound support, career pathway planning, and all requirements to earn a Child Development Associate Credential. Employment matching occurs for trainees in licensed child care centers. Employers agree to maintain placement wages at the $17/hour. The Nevada Early Care and Education Workforce Framework is a comprehensive and unified approach to support the early childhood education professionals and the families they serve. The framework goals are to: support a well-prepared, qualified, diverse, equitably compensated, and thriving early childhood workforce; ensure early childhood professionals have access to a living wage and affordable benefits package; strengthen and enforce program standards to ensure positive work environments; ensure leaders and stakeholders have access to timely and accurate data about the workforce to promote informed decisions; and improve public awareness. The ECE Workforce Framework is intended to educate employers and policymakers about the importance of increasing compensation for the child care workforce in order to stabilize and ensure ongoing access to child care services for all Nevadans. 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 current Telehealth Services benefit program which includes telehealth, teletherapy, vision, and dental benefits through Ally Health is an ongoing effort to expand access to health benefits. Telehealth benefits are provided to all active providers in the NV Registry. Ally Health provides telehealth, teletherapy, and an employee assistance program (EAP) for providers and families. Vision and dental benefits for providers (with option to upgrade and add family members) are also included in the benefits program, in addition to a prescription discount card further expanding access to health insurance. Due to budget constraints following the loss of pandemic relief funds as of September 30, 2024, Nevada will not be able to continue to provide or expand access to benefits. d. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to support the mental health and well-being of the child care workforce. The current Telehealth Services benefit program which includes telehealth, teletherapy, vision, and dental benefits through Ally Health is an ongoing effort to expand access to health benefits. Telehealth benefits are provided to all active providers in the NV Registry and support the mental health and well- being of child care providers and their family. Ally Health provides teletherapy, and an employee assistance program (EAP) for providers and families. Vision and dental benefits for providers (with option to upgrade and add family members) are also included in the benefits program, in addition to a prescription discount card further expanding access to health insurance and supporting mental health and well-being. Due to budget constraints following the loss of pandemic relief funds as of September 30, 2024, Nevada will not be able to continue to provide or expand access to benefits. 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 Child Care Excellence Academy supports recruitment and retention strategies to help stabilize the childcare workforce in Nevada by providing training to recruit well-qualified candidates, increasing the capacity of the child care workforce and incentivizing child care professionals to improve provider retention. Nevada Early Care and Education Workforce Framework is a comprehensive and unified approach to support the early childhood education providers and the families they serve. The framework goals are to: support a well-prepared, qualified, diverse, equitably compensated, and thriving early childhood workforce; ensure early childhood professionals have access to a living wage and affordable benefits package; strengthen and enforce program standards to ensure positive work environments; ensure leaders and stakeholders have access to timely and accurate data about the workforce to promote informed decisions; and improve public awareness. 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 Nevada Strong Start Child Care Services Center (CCSC) serves as a one-stop shop for business and professional development support with 2 physical locations and 1 virtual platform. The CCSC physical locations bring together partner organizations from both public and private sectors under one roof to create a coordinated and aligned ECE system. The virtual CCSC is a shared services website administered through ECE Shared Resources which provides both national best practices and state specific content for strengthening child care providers’ administrative 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. [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: Additional resources and tools available through ECE Shared Resources website include business basics and professionalism trainings, strategic plans, business finances, toolkits to assist in balance of operating business and caring for the children, business expansion, building business credit, and business model resources. 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: Family Friend and Neighbor (FFN) registration and training materials are available in Spanish. This includes Caring for Our Children Basics to prepare all FFN providers for their health and safety visit. For languages other than Spanish, Tele-language service can be used to communicate with providers. This service is offered 24/7, 365 days and provides translation services for over 200 languages. The Resource and Referral Department also has Spanish-speaking staff members to register FFN providers who speak Spanish. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: All resource and referral offices are ADA compliant, and staff have training on the use of Relay Nevada (7-1-1) which is a free service that provides full telephone accessibility to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and speech disabled. This service allows users to communicate with standard telephone users through specially trained relay operators. The call can be made to anywhere in Nevada 24/7, 365 days with no restrictions on the number, length, or type of calls. All calls are strictly confidential, and no records of any conversations are maintained.