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. South Dakota conducted workforce and cost of care studies in 2024 to obtain information on the current wages and benefits for child care providers. Results of these studies are currently pending and will inform activities in the next plan period. 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. NA d. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to support the mental health and well-being of the child care workforce. Beginning in 2022, Child Care Services worked with a consultant to provide training to child care providers on Trauma Resource Institute’s Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®. Child Care Services will continue offering training and support around this model through trainers in the South Dakota Early Childhood Enrichment (ECE) System who completed the train the trainer. The Community Resiliency Model trains community members to not only help themselves, but to help others within their wider social network. The primary focus of CRM is to educate individuals about the biology and neurophysiology of trauma, stress and resilience as well as teach simple biologically based wellness skills, which can help re-set and stabilize the nervous system. Through CRM, individuals learn to read sensations connected to their own well-being (the ￿Resilient Zone￿). CRM’s goal is to help to create ￿trauma-informed￿ and ￿resiliency-informed and -focused￿ communities that share a common understanding of the impact of trauma and chronic stress on the nervous system and how resiliency can be restored or increased using this skills-based approach. CRM is a ￿research-informed￿ intervention. 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 is partnering with SD Educators Rising and the SD Head Start Collaboration to provide CDA training for high school students. Child Care Services supports a position within the ECE System to provide live online instruction of the SD CDA Training Program for high school students across South Dakota during the school day. The program began in 2023-24 and will continue in the new plan year. Child Care Services, the Office of Licensing and Accreditation and the ECE System also plan to plan to focus on recruitment and retention of state registered family child care providers in the new plan period. During this state plan period, the Office of Licensing and Accreditation will work with the SD ECE System to explore strategies focused on family daycare recruitment. 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. Basic training on business practices is delivered by the ECE system through trainings such as the Management Training Series and Family Child Care Entry Level Series. These series are available online on-demand to be accessible to child care providers statewide. Staff from the regional ECE agencies have also completed the trainer the trainer series for the Strengthening Business Practices Series curriculum and will offer the training beginning in July 2024. In addition to training, regional ECE and Child Care Licensing staff provide one-on-one technical assistance and coaching to child care programs to address individualized program needs. During technical assistance visits, staff utilize tools such as the Program Administration and Business Administration Scales as well as resources from First Children's Finance (http://www.firstchildrensfinance.org/) to improve program business practices. In partnership with the state Quality Recognition and Information System pilot, the ECE system launched the SD ECE Shared Resource Hub. This hub consists of quick links to state and federal regulations and guidance, samples and templates of recordkeeping basics, procedures, policies, toolkits), parent and employee handbooks and more help for providers to manage their programs more efficiently. With over 2,600 practical, editable tools and templates, the platform offers easy access (24/7) to a wealth of resources that support, strengthen, and stabilize the business of family- and center-based child care. When more formal, in-depth training is needed, ECE agencies refer child care directors to local resources such as the Department of Labor and Regulation and the Small Business Administration who have additional expertise in this area. Also in this plan year, DSS will be implementing the South Dakota Child Care Director ￿ 360 Support Program statewide. This program was developed with a partnership between South Dakota Office of Licensing and Accreditation and the South Dakota Early Childhood Enrichment (ECE) Programs. Child care directors have various responsibilities, from staff management to policy implementation and everything in between. The 360 Support Program is a professionally guided program that provides tools, technical assistance, education and support to child care directors. Throughout the 360 Support Program, directors will receive individualized, customized support from SD ECE Program and/or South Dakota Office of Licensing and Accreditation staff on the topics of: Health and Safety, Business Practices, Best Practices, Child Development, and Professionalism. The 360 Support program will build a positive, strong relationship between the child care program directors, SD ECE Programs and the South Dakota Office of Licensing and Accreditation. Annually, the SD Early Childhood Enrichment System hosts an Early Childhood and School- Age Care Leadership Summit for child and school-age care program directors. Each summit provides 2-3 tracks focusing on program management and leadership topic areas. 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. [ ] 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: Topics include Managing vs Leading; and Policy Development and Implementation. 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: South Dakota has organizations in the Sioux Falls region that offer various programs and resources to limited English-speaking child care providers. These programs provide many connections within the community to assist with interpretation services. Limited English-speaking families themselves are a resource. Most often, familiar individuals are selected as a provider by the family and CCS works with various interpretation services or English-speaking family members to increase communication and understanding of the training content. If a potential provider is identified, licensing specialists make contact with the potential provider. They share resource information available on services they can choose from and promote to the informal or in-home provider the higher rate paid to a registered provider and the process to encourage them to become registered. CCS provides access to an online orientation training provided by Better Kid Care to provide access for individuals who speak Spanish. Closed captioning is available to complete the training at no cost to the provider for the SD Orientation to Early Childhood and School-Age Care Series. and Ongoing Health and Safety training series. CCS has collaborated with the Aspire2Tech program offered at Southeast Technical College in Sioux Falls as a way to support individuals with limited English-speaking proficiency to enter the to the child care field. The Introduction to Child Care course teaches developmental milestones, nutritional needs, and appropriate disciplinary strategies for young children. Students also gain reading and language skills and learn about the behaviors and values needed for the workplace. Students will also earn a Work Ethic Certificate through this course and upon completion are prepared to take the SD Orientation to Early Childhood and School-Age Care Series required for all individuals working in state registered and licensed child care programs. Licensing staff work directly with providers and inform them of supports available to them. Licensing staff use pictorials to describe compliance items such as fire extinguishers and outlet covers. Often various languages and/or dialects are spoken and with the help of an Interpreter or a family member who speaks English, communication challenges have been overcome on a case-by-case basis based on the comfort level of the provider. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: Child Care supports providers on a case-by-case basis to provide individualized supports based on the needs of the provider. Special accommodations such as sign language interpreters, translators, adaptive devices, or other needed accommodations in order to fully participate are also addressed on a case- by-case basis. Licensing staff work directly with providers and inform them of supports available to them. Licensing staff use pictorials to describe compliance items such as fire extinguishers and outlet covers. Health and safety orientation training classes have a closed captioning option are available to providers at no cost to meet this training requirement.