6.2 Professional Development Framework

A Lead Agency must have a professional development framework for training, professional development, and post-secondary education for caregivers, teachers, and directors in child care programs that serve children of all ages. The framework must include these components: (1) professional standards and competencies, (2) career pathways, (3) advisory structures, (4) articulation, (5) workforce information, and (6) financing. CCDF provides Lead Agencies flexibility on the strategies, breadth, and depth of the framework. The professional development framework must be developed in consultation with the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care or a similar coordinating body. 6.2.1 Updates and consultation a. Did the Lead Agency make any updates to the professional development framework since the FFY 2022-2024 CCDF Plan was submitted? [x] Yes. If yes, describe the elements of the framework that were updated and describe if and how the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care (if applicable) or similar coordinating body was consulted: The State is transitioning to the updated 2023 Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards (RIELDS). RIDE, in partnership with the Department of Human Services, is pivoting away from using the Workforce Knowledge and Competencies (WKC’s), and transitioning to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators. Rhode Island recognizes the importance of ongoing early care and education research and believes that by adopting the NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies, we will ensure that our workforce will remain current on best practices. CELP has created a set of online self-assessment courses on the WKCs that have been used by the workforce dating back to 2013 to promote the development of young children and is working to realign these online courses with the NAEYC Standards. DHS (the Lead Agency) and RIDE are the co-leads of the Early Learning Council and use the quarterly meets to ensure members of the council and other stakeholders at council meetings understood what was happening and had the ability to provide feedback on the process. [ ]No. b. Did the Lead Agency consult with other key groups in the development of their professional development framework? [x] Yes. If yes, identify the other key groups: This work was a joint effort with the Lead Agency DHS and the Rhode Island Department of Education, as well as the two largest vendors that work in the early childhood field in Rhode Island ￿ our vendor for our Quality Rating and Improvement System, RIAEYC BrightStars as well as out Professional Development and Technical Assistance hub, the Center for Early Learning Professionals (CELP). [ ] No. 6.2.2 Description of the professional development framework a. Describe how the Lead Agency’s framework for training and professional development addresses the following required elements: i. Professional standards and competencies. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about which roles in early childhood education are included (such as teachers, directors, infant and toddler specialists, mental health consultants, coaches, licensors, QIS assessors, family service workers, home visitors). Center For Early Learning Professionals (CELP) organizes, categorizes, and offers Professional Development and Technical Assistance (PDTA) by provider type and aligned to the Workforce Knowledge and Competency Framework (WKC). Technical assistance is organized and categorized by tiered services aligned with program self-assessment of continuous quality improvement and licensing needs. The CELP collaborates with referral partners to document and track TA and its outcomes. CELP is working to re-align the PDTA from the WKCs to NAEYC. ii. Career pathways. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about professional development registries, career ladders, and levels. The CELP offers a series of self-paced and instructor-led lead classes to help early childhood educators use the WKC’s and NAEYC standards to meet their Individual Development Plan (IPDP). The Lead Agency has designed stackable low and no- cost education and training pathways that appeal to adult learners from entry to advanced. The pathways are progressive and support career advancement. The RISES Workforce Registry launched on February 5, 2024. The launch of the registry introduced the early childhood workforce in Rhode Island to the opportunity to digitally track professional development, store professional information and link to their employer to share this information. The registry will make tracking progress toward career pathways more efficient and allow for more strategic technical assistance for educators. In the future, the registry intends to provide educators with clear information on career and education pathway opportunities to increase access to these opportunities for all educators. iii. Advisory structure. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about how the professional development advisory structure interacts with the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care. The RI Department of Human Services, Office of Child Care, is the state’s lead agency overseeing the standards and competencies for Early Education and Workforce Development. The Lead Agency receives recommendations from community partners and collaborates with the RI Children’s Cabinet and the RI Early Learning Council. The statewide hub for ECE workforce and development in Rhode Island, the Center for Early Learning Professionals (CELP) ￿ a contract issued and actively managed by RI DHS, regularly attends and participates in the RI Children’s Cabinet (in addition to RI DHS representation) and maintains an official voting seat on the RI Early Learning Council. The CELP develops new PD using experts and current science/research; curates and coordinates high-quality PD; and reviews and approves external PD to ensure all PD for the RI ECE workforce aligns with approved professional competencies. While the CELP scope is to lead this work, RI DHS is actively involved ensuring alignment of PD with advisories received from RI Children’s Cabinet and the RI Early Learning Council. For the RI Children’s Cabinet and the RI Early Learning Council, data shared and concerns elevated contribute towards informing priority of PD topics developed for asynchronous and synchronous needs. A specific example from the RI Children’s Cabinet Objective 2 Equitable access to high quality, timely services and supports, under Early Childhood Care and Education, is the ￿Young Multilingual Learners Needs Assessment.￿ A key finding from this assessment in 2023 was ECEs and site directors are interested in ￿having more learning opportunities to improve understanding of ways to support MLLs in the classroom.￿ While the data validated the inclusivity courses/PD already on offer, the data was used to drive action to explore and expand PD opportunities focusing on MLLs in addition to inclusion practices in general. PD and TA supports range from early childhood through school age programming and out-of-school time. The RI Early Learning Council presents opportunities for EC experts from state agencies, vendors and community partners to weigh in on current ELC initiatives and vote on ELC recommendations. The ELC presents an opportunity to identify issue that should be prioritized, based on data and research, to elevate to the state. A specific concern is ECE workforce recruitment and retention. This has guided PD revisions for business practices series including, recruitment and retention strategies; a pipeline for CELP TA to refer to quality initiatives (such as T.E.A.C.H and LearnERS); and CELP support of CTE and higher ed career pathway pipelines with CELP PD credit alignment work. RI DHS utilizes the CELP to serve as a hub in additional ways including but not limited to disseminating information learned via RI DHS that may have been shared between Children’s Cabinet or ELC meetings for PD or other TA needs; technical assistance direct to providers (center- and home- based); and, information to other community partners that support ECEs and families with young learners. This is done in collaboration and coordination with leadership at RI DHS and the CELP. The CELP meets and reports data updates with the assigned RI DHS contract manager and RI DHS leadership regularly supporting a bidirectional approach: using data from PD advisories to implement PD to sharing feedback and other data from PD offerings which can then be reported back to RI Children’s Cabinet and/or RI Early Learning Council. iv. Articulation. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about articulation agreements, and collaborative agreements that support progress in degree acquisition. The Lead Agency participated in the RI Early Child Care Educator Career Pathways Project. Leveraging funding from the Preschool Development Birth through Five planning grant, faculty and staff from CCRI, RIC, and URI have been working to evaluate challenges for students traveling across the ECE pathway, spanning from The Early Childhood Certificate and Associate’s Degree completion (CCRI) to Bachelor’s Degree and Pre-K-2, Teaching Certification (RIC and URI). Through this cross-agency, collaborative work, the goal is to develop and implement solutions to remove barriers for students. The work centered on developing solutions to Strengthen the transferability of credits based on Credit for Prior Learning, identify the ￿ideal￿ curriculum pathway for transfer students, align communication of student opportunities, and strengthen collaboration across the three state higher-education instructions. The project will be finalized by the Fall of 2024. v. Workforce information. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about workforce demographics, educator well-being, retention/turnover surveys, actual wage scales, and/or access to benefits. The RISES Workforce Registry, which launched on February 5, 2024, provides the Lead Agency accurate, real- time information about the current workforce demographics including workforce age, ethnicity, location, education, language spoken and years of experience. Though the data system is new and still enrolling participants, the demographic data collected to date provides the following demographic data: As of May, 2024, 2,794 educators have registered in the RISES Workforce Registry. This data is still considered incomplete; however, it provides us with a sample of the workforce to analyze. In the category of age-group served, the responses (966) indicated 21% serve all age-groups, 8% infants, 7% infants and toddlers, 11% toddlers, 45% preschool, and 7% school age children. In the category of race, the responses (2,335) indicate 5% Black or African American, 64% White, 19% Hispanic, 3% combined races, 5% other, and 4% prefer not to answer. In the category of gender, the responses (2,325) indicate 96% female, 3% male, and 1% prefer not to answer. In the category of highest level of education, the responses (1,713) indicate 38% High School/GED, 5% CDA, 13% Associate's degree, 32% Bachelor’s Degree, 10% Master’s Degree, and less than 1% Doctorate. As a note ￿ the RISES system was launched 3 months prior to this data point and most programs are registering administrative roles first. Knowing this, we can assume this data is skewed in this direction, however, this will be corrected by next year when all educators are in the system and accounted for. vi. Financing. For example, Lead Agencies can include information about strategies including scholarships, apprenticeships, wage enhancements, etc. The Lead Agency partners with the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children (RIAEYC) to operate the RI Teacher Education and Compensation Helps scholarship program (T.E.A.C.H.) The early childhood workforce, with the support of their employer, may apply to receive a scholarship to obtain early childhood certificates, college credits, and degrees at the Community College of RI (CCRI), Rhode Island College (RIC), and the University of Rhode Island (URI). RI supports several models that vary per program of study but typically include tuition reimbursement (typically offering 90% of the cost of tuition), educator-paid time off, student stipends, textbooks, wage enhancements, and bonuses for the educator and sponsoring employer. In 2023, DHS received additional State Fiscal Recovery funds to expand scholarship models and increase the number of recipients. The new scholarship models include 3-6 college credits, two post- baccalaureate programs, and a Master's Degree. Programming will continue through 2026. The lead agency also sustained the Infant Toddler Registered Apprentice Program (RA), a formally Preschool Development Grant funded project. This program will continue to offer two options for the Infant Toddler workforce. In Level I, infant toddler assistants enroll in the ECETP CCRI CDA Infant Toddler (IT) training and earn the CDA credential. Lead Infant Toddler Teachers enroll in Registered Apprentice (RA) level II to earn the RIC 16-Credit B3 Certificate of Undergraduate Studies. All RAs complete on-the-job learning requirements, receive pre- and post- Infant Toddler Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale assessments, participate in coaching and mentoring, and complete on-the-job learning requirements to earn the CDA IT, RIC B3, and the RI DLT RA credentials at no cost. Employers who sponsor RAs are required to provide two 1.5% salary increases to participating employees. Employers are eligible to receive sign-on and completion bonuses for up to 4 sponsored employees b. Does the Lead Agency use additional elements? [x] Yes. If yes, describe the element(s). Check all that apply. i. [x] Continuing education unit trainings and credit-bearing professional development. Describe: As described above, the Lead Agency partners with the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children (RIAEYC) to operate the RI Teacher Education and Compensation Helps scholarship program (T.E.A.C.H.) RIAEYC is the fiscal and programmatic intermediary for the DHS Infant Toddler Registered Apprentice Program (RA). The RA program offers two options for the Infant Toddler workforce. In level I, infant toddler assistants enroll in the Infant Toddler (IT) training and earn the CDA credential. Lead Infant Toddler Teachers enroll in RA level II to earn the RIC 16-Credit B3 Certificate of Undergraduate Studies. All RAs complete on-the-job learning requirements, receive pre- and post-Infant Toddler Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale assessments, participate in coaching and mentoring, and complete on-the-job learning requirements to earn various credentials at no cost. Employers who sponsor RAs are required to provide two 1.5% salary increases to participating employees. Employers are eligible to receive sign-on and completion bonuses for up to 4 sponsored employees. For 2024-2025, RIAEYC-TEACH conducts ongoing recruitment to enroll students in each of the following models: CDA exam costs.; 3-6 credits at the Community College of RI; 16 credits- Infant Toddler -Certificate of Undergraduate Studies at Rhode Island College (RIC); THE CCRI 24- Credit Early Childhood Education Certificate; Early Childhood Associates Degree at the Community College of RI. Early Childhood Bachelor of Science Degree (Non- certification and RI PRE-K Certification options) at Rhode Island College or the University of RI(URI). Postbaccalaureate PRE-K Certification at URI. Postbaccalaureate PRE-K & Early Childhood Special Education Certificate of Graduate Studies at RIC. Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education Leadership at RIC. The Lead Agency partners with the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) to operate the Rhode Island Early Childhood Education and Training Program (ECETP), a comprehensive and unique education and training program that strengthens the knowledge and skills of both seasoned and novice early childhood educators by providing supportive mentoring, coaching, cohort-based learning, and formal academic coursework. RIECETP offers three free-of-cost, stackable pathways for educators to achieve portable and stackable certificates and/or college credits that are integral to the DHS Sponsored Professional Development & Technical Assistance (PD/TA) Early Childhood Education Workforce Development Pathways Quality Continuum. The Lead Agency partners with Rhode Island College (RIC) to implement two pathways for educators to earn stackable college credits in infant toddler development, earning the RIC 16-credit birth to age three Certificate of Undergraduate Studies. Educators can choose to enroll in an English language learning Cohort, where the first 4 courses are delivered in Spanish, followed by a contextualized ELL course; the final course is delivered in English, or the non-ELL Cohort, where all courses are delivered in English. ii. [x] Engagement of training and professional development providers, including higher education, in aligning training and educational opportunities with the Lead Agency's framework. Describe: The Lead Agency partners with the state higher education institutions, the RI Department of Education, through a contracting process, participating in higher-ed advisory committees and think-tank sessions to identify and develop workforce pathways, training, and programming to meet the needs of the diverse workforce. iii. [x] Other. Describe: The Lead agency partners with the Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital to operate and manage the SUCCESS (Supporting Children’s Competencies in Emotional and Social Skills) program, a statewide infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) program for early care and education settings. IECMHC promotes nurturing relationships and enhances the capacity of staff, families, programs, and systems to prevent, identify, and intervene with the social, emotional, and behavioral health needs of young children (0-5 years). Child-focused IECMHC supports the needs of individual children whose development or behavior is of concern to families or early care and education staff. In this model, a SUCCESS consultant helps children’s caregivers understand, contextualize, and address the child’s social and emotional needs by developing and implementing an individualized plan. This service is available to DHS-licensed and RI PreK center-based programs. Classroom and program-focused IECMHC promotes classroom and program-wide social, emotional, and behavioral support via Coordination of Care teams. In this model, a SUCCESS consultant facilitates reflective discussion and problem-solving about the social, emotional, and behavioral needs within whole classrooms and programs. This service is offered to DHS-licensed and RI PreK center-based programs. The Early Childhood Mental Health Workshop Series includes didactic content, reflective discussion, and collaborative problem-solving focused on early childhood mental health topics. This series is offered to DHS-licensed Family Child Care Providers. Several times a year. Participants receive DHS approved professional development credit via The Center for Early Learning Professionals. Additional IECMHC services for the family child care community are under development. The Rhode Island Reflective Supervision Series includes foundational training and a monthly workshop focused on enhancing supervisors’ reflective supervision skills and competencies. Supervising professionals within DHS-licensed early care and education programs are eligible to participate. Professional development credit via The Center for Early Learning Professionals. The Lead Agency, in partnership with RIAEYC, manages the Career Pathways Project; in this project, TEACH counselors partner with local high schools that offer career and technical programming in early childhood education to increase awareness of employment and scholarship opportunities, including linking students to internships, scheduling guest speakers and sponsoring field trips to the state institutions of higher education. [ ] No. 6.2.3 Impact of the Professional Development Framework Describe how the framework improves the quality, diversity, stability, and retention of caregivers, teachers, and directors and identify what data are available to assess the impact. a. Professional standards and competencies. For example, do the professional standards and competencies reflect the diversity of providers across role, child care setting, or age of children served? The Lead Agency and the Rhode Island Department of Education reviews systems and identifies areas of need regarding all early care and education programming and supports. Rhode Island requires all state-approved professional development offerings to be aligned with the Rhode Island Workforce Knowledge and Competencies Frameworks for the early care and education workforce and the Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards (RIDE). The RI WKCs were developed to accommodate and be inclusive of all professional roles including Teachers, Teacher Assistants, Family Child Care Providers and Administration/Coordinator/Leadership roles to acknowledge the unique needs and goals for professionals in these roles. These are each parsed out by domain and benchmark levels for career pathways for the unique learning needs for each EC professional. The domains for all WKCs (except Admin/Coord/Leadership) include Physical and Mental Health, Safety, and Wellness; Family Engagement’ Development and Learning; Curriculum; Child Assessment; and Professionalism and the career pathway benchmarks (domain competency) range from Level 1 to Level 4. The Leadership WKC domains include Leadership, Program Management, Continuous Quality Improvement, Staff Support, Community Partnerships, Family Engagement, Development and Learning, Curriculum, and Child Assessment with varying levels broken down for either: Administrators or Education Coordinators. School age and OST professionals are also supported by a School age and OST expert TA and PD developer at the Center for Early Learning Professionals to ensure all early childhood professionals are supported in their roles caring for children from birth through out of school time/school age programming. PD is available synchronous or asynchronous and in virtual, in-person or hybrid modalities. Additionally, WKCs, guidance documents, workforce communication and PD support are available in English and Spanish which are the two primary languages spoken by EC professionals in RI. The CELP also has support available to translate and interpret other languages as needed so the EC workforce can have their needs met. Providers can view PD available through the Center for Early Learning Professionals and filter by WKC or topic they are most interested in and, if seeking PD elsewhere, can seek approval through the Center and share which WKC(s) the PD supports (along with other PD of interest based on the professional’s IPDP assessment. Each EC professional in RI can ask questions or seek support in their PD support needs from the Center for Early Learning Professionals team (in addition to RI DHS staff as needed). The Lead Agency is currently in the process of transitioning from the RI WKCs to the NAEYC Professional Standards. This process will ensure the continuation of support for all child care settings and ages served. In addition, this opportunity allows an added time to identify gaps with this transition and how to solve them ￿ continuing to increase inclusivity and meeting the changing and diverse needs of EC workforce. The working group addressing this transition have sought guidance and support from NAEYC to confirm alignment work and solution options for inclusion of Leadership WKC with this alignment along with school age/OST professionals. The Center for Early Learning Professionals administers the early childhood education and training approval process for all state supported and mandated PDTA. This process ensures access to high-quality professional development and technical assistance is available to all CCDF providers at all levels and sectors of the workforce and career pathways. The Lead Agency utilizes workforce enrollment data, QRIS data, and data gathered from formal and informal assessments. Going forward, the Lead Agency will utilize the RISES database as another tool to identify workforce gaps and needs. The RISES system automatically stores and tracks all professional development completed by each educator, including a count of completed professional development hours on their main profile page. The registry also allows for storage of the Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) to encourage educators to align coursework to their plans. The Center for Early Learning Professionals will use information obtained through data from RISES to determine the needs of the workforce in order to plan for future professional development offerings along with the current methods for determining need, including surveys and requests from providers and educators. b. Career pathways. For example, has the Lead Agency developed a wage ladder that provides progressively higher wages as early educators gain more experience and credentials? What types of child care settings and staff roles are addressed in career pathways, such as licensed centers and family child care homes? The Lead Agency does not have a defined or regulated wage ladder but does offer TEACH scholarships with embedded financial support and guaranteed wage increases. Additionally, DHS offers an Infant Toddler the opportunity to enroll in the DHS Infant Toddler Registered Apprenticeship programs that also offer grounded wage increases and other financial incentives. DHS has made initial progress on developing a wage ladder through the state￿s PDG B-5 Planning Grant. This funding allowed DHS to commission a report that analyzed the current compensation for early educators as well as develop a potential wage scale for consideration based on both experience and credentials, and applicable for both center- based and FCC educators in a variety of roles (FCC assistant/classroom aide, teacher assistant, lead teacher/FCC, master teacher, program director). As described in the report: PCG proposed a wage scale that drives towards the Power to the Profession Unifying Framework credentials, established as ECE I, ECE II, and ECE III. Doing so would align Rhode Island to a growing trend in states aligning to this national framework and establish benchmarks both for education levels and tenure. This framework further promotes equity across teaching roles, regardless of the age of children. In addition, the Governor’s Workforce Board convened an Early Childhood Workforce Advisory Committee in October 2022 in response to the FY23 Budget. The Working Group worked to identify recommendations and strategies to address workforce challenges including meeting the demand for ECE workers, increasing CCAP reimbursement rates, increasing wages and benefits for ECE workers and improving quality for ECE Programs. c. Advisory structure. For example, has the advisory structure identified goals for child care workforce compensation, including types of staff and target compensation levels? Does the Lead Agency have a Preschool Development Birth-to-Five grant and is part of its scope of work child care compensation activities? Are they represented in the advisory structure? The Lead Agency has utilized PDG B-5 Grant funds as well as State Fiscal Recovery Funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to invest in compensation for early childhood educators. This has included a pilot WAGE$ program (impacting more than 300 unique educators) and a universal Pandemic Retention Bonus Program (impacting more than 6,000 unique educators). Both programs were informed by the State Advisory Council (known as the Early Learning Council), which had developed and adopted compensation targets and recommendations. In addition, the Governor’s Workforce Board convened an Early Childhood Workforce Advisory Committee in October 2022 in response to the FY23 Budget. The Working Group worked to identify recommendations and strategies to address workforce challenges including meeting the demand for ECE workers, increasing CCAP reimbursement rates, increasing wages and benefits for ECE workers and improving quality for ECE Programs. d. Articulation. For example, how does the advisory structure include training and professional development for providers, including higher education, to assist in aligning training and education opportunities? The Lead Agency participated in the RI Early Child Care Educator Career Pathways Project. Leveraging funding from the Preschool Development Birth through Five planning grant, faculty and staff from CCRI, RIC, and URI have been working to evaluate challenges for students traveling across the ECE pathway, spanning from The Early Childhood Certificate and Associate’s Degree completion (CCRI) to Bachelor’s Degree and Pre-K-2, Teaching Certification (RIC and URI). Through this cross- agency, collaborative work, the goal is to develop and implement solutions to remove barriers for students. The work centered on developing solutions to Strengthen the transferability of credits based on Credit for Prior Learning, identify the ￿ideal￿ curriculum pathway for transfer students, align communication of student opportunities, and strengthen collaboration across the three state higher-education instructions. The project will be finalized by the Fall of 2024. e. Workforce information. For example, does the Lead Agency have data on the existing wages and benefits available to the child care workforce? Do any partners such as the Quality Improvement System, child care resource and referral agencies, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and universities and research organizations collect compensation and benefits data? Does the Lead Agency monitor child care workforce wages and access to benefits through ongoing data collection and evaluation? Can the data identify any disparities in the existing compensation and benefits (by geography, role, child care setting, race, ethnicity, gender, or age of children served)? The Lead Agency does have data on the existing wages and benefits available to the child care workforce and has invested in both from point-in-time studies as well as workforce registry that will allow for ongoing analysis. With Preschool Development Grant funding, in late 2023, the lead agency conducted a mixed-methods Early Childhood educator compensation study to gather comprehensive data pertaining to the compensation of educators teaching in licensed child care facilities. Key questions driving the study included (1) the current state of compensation and benefits for early educators, (2) the compensation levels needed to sustainably attract and retain early educators and (3) the potential strategies and costs for achieving that compensation. This study disaggregated data by role, gender, race/ethnicity, and years in the field, allowing the lead agency to better understand compensation equity across the early learning sector. Also with PDG funding, the Lead Agency conducted a Step up to WAGE$ pilot based on the national Child Care WAGE$ program, meant to increase retention, education and compensation of early childhood professionals. DHS awarded 271 applicants based on funding available and as part of the application process, received data about their wages and educational attainment. This provides an additional point in time comparison to understand wages in the field. On an ongoing basis, DHS will be able to utilize the RISES data system to monitor compensation. The RISES data system includes a workforce registry module, which went live in February 2024. This system requests that educators input their compensation information, allowing the lead agency to run reports on a regular basis regarding the state of compensation in the field. The system will allow DHS to disaggregate this information by race/ethnicity, gender, age-group served, and more key factors. This will inform DHS workforce strategies around addressing disparities. f. Financing. For example, has the Lead Agency set a minimum or living wage as a floor for all child care staff? Do Lead Agency-provider subsidy agreements contain requirements for staff compensation levels? Do Lead Agencies provide program-level compensation grants to support staff base salaries and benefits? Does the Lead Agency administer bonuses or stipends directly to workers? Beginning in the Spring of 2022, the State of Rhode Island has provided Pandemic Retention Bonuses (grants) to all early educators in RI working directly with children in licensed child care centers or family child care homes. Educators apply in quarterly windows, attesting that they have worked at their current employer for the past three (3) months and ensuring their continued employment for the following three (3) months. This information is verified by the employer before funds are distributed to the educator. Windows one (1) and two (2) of the program were each 6 months in length with bonuses of $1,500.00 awarded to educators each window. Windows three (3) through nine (9) were 3 months in length with bonuses of $750.00 awarded to educators in each window. Window ten (10), the final window of the program, is due to open for applications on July 1, 2024. To date, $29,400,000.00 in bonus funds have been awarded to 6574 unique applicants.