7.1 Quality Activities Needs Assessment

7.1.1 Needs assessment process and findings a. Describe the Lead Agency needs assessment process for expending CCDF funds on activities to improve the quality of child care, including the frequency of assessment, how a diverse range of parents and providers were consulted, and how their views are incorporated: The Lead Agency utilizes a number of different approaches to assess where to invest quality dollars. Quality activities are prioritized based on community feedback and data from a number of sources. The CAC database allows the Lead Agency to review data on a monthly basis and provides information utilized in decision making. Examples of this include the educational level of providers, program vacancies, what programs are caring for the largest percentages of children receiving subsidy and other valuable data. As a result of the CCDF requirement to determine prioritization of quality expenditures through the use of needs assessments, the Lead Agency conducted formal needs assessments in 2017 and 2019. A new needs assessment is set to be released in 2024. The following assessments are utilized to prioritize activities to improve the quality of Utah’s child care system: The 2017 Utah Early Childhood Services Study: In 2017, the Utah Legislature required the Lead Agency to produce a comprehensive report analyzing Utah's early childhood system. This report contained an analysis of several early childhood programs, needs of Utah’s early childhood population and data gaps. Analysis included Utah’s child care system. The 2019 (and 2024) Utah Preschool Development Grant B-5 Needs Assessment: In December 2018, the DWS￿OCC was awarded a federal Preschool Development Grant, Birth through Five (PDG B-5) to analyze Utah’s current early childhood care and education landscape, including its systems and programs. Grants funds provided an opportunity for Utah to begin creating, or further build, high-functioning, coordinated, and aligned birth- through-five early childhood systems to best meet the needs of young children and their families. The report was published in 2019 and contains three primary sections￿ Section 1: Utah’s Children, Birth through Age Five, Section 2: Utah’s Birth-through-Five System, and Section 3: Programmatic Elements in Utah’s System. Interviews of key stakeholders as well as parent focus groups held across the state were used to inform the needs assessment. The analysis included Utah’s child care system. An updated Preschool Development Grant B-5 Needs Assessment is expected to be released in 2024 and will be used to inform further quality initiatives. The 2023 Unveiling the Landscape of Utah’s Child Care Workforce Report: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lead Agency developed the Youth and Early Care Workforce Bonus Program to provide one-time payments to those working in the field to support child care and other early learning program workers. As part of the application process, the Lead Agency was able to gather a substantial amount of data about Utah’s child care workforce. The data was collected between July 19-August 31, 2022, and is very representative of the workforce across the state as the majority of the workforce applied for this bonus. The Lead Agency contracted with the University of Utah, Economics Department to analyze the data and provide information to the Lead Agency. This resulted in a comprehensive, 52-page report on the working conditions, wages, and motivations of Utah’s child care workforce. This report is currently being used to help guide our decision making efforts, continued funding and marketing and outreach efforts around quality initiatives for the workforce. b. Describe the findings of the assessment, including any findings related to needs of different populations and types of providers, and if any overarching goals for quality improvement were identified: The Parental Child Care Survey of 2017 reflected that a number of parents do not choose to work because they are concerned about the quality of child care in their area. It also demonstrated that many parents are not choosing to work because of the cost of child care. One key takeaway of the 2019 PDG-B-5 Needs Assessment is that well-coordinated and aligned systems include high-quality early care and education programs as part of the larger education continuum that leads into kindergarten. The report also stated challenges with being able to evaluate the impact of CCQS on children and the community because the CCQS system was not fully implemented at the time the report was written. Since that report was written, the CCQS has been fully implemented in both center based and family child care programs. After a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lead Agency re- rated centers beginning November 2021, and the first certified ratings for family child care went into effect August 1, 2022. Although it has been implemented, participation is still low. Currently, 27% of eligible center based programs are participating. Additionally, of the 117 center based rated programs, 43 programs or 27 percent are rated as High Quality or High Quality Plus. In licensed family child care, only 59, or 7 percent of programs are rated. Of those programs, 23 or 39 percent are rated High Quality. As awareness of CCQS grows and more participating programs receive coaching and technical assistance, the number of high-quality child care programs operating in the state, as well as the number of young children served by levels of quality, including children representing Utah’s target populations will increase. To address the findings in the 2019 PDG-B-5 Needs Assessment, the Lead Agency will continue to prioritize investments to support programs through the Child Care Quality System. The 2023 ￿Unveiling the Landscape of Utah’s Child Care Workforce: Working Conditions, Wages and Motivations￿ report reveals that education levels of early childhood professionals are low. Gains have been made in this area over the past three years but there is still much work to do. The Lead Agency will continue to make investments in CDA cohorts, Early EdU courses and the T.E.A.C.H. program to work toward closing this gap.