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. [ ] 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. [x] 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. [x] Other. Describe: CDD has been working in partnership with the Vermont Department of Labor ("VDOL") and the VTAEYC to implement a Youth ECE Apprenticeship Program (formerly called a Pre-ECE Apprenticeship Program). This program partners with Career and Technical Education Centers around the state to provide early childhood professionals with access to two (2) free community college courses, trainings that are required for those entering the ECE workforce, and worksite placements within regulated child care programs. Youth Apprentices and mentor participating in this program also receive a stipend for their efforts. Vermont’s Act 76 dramatically increased CCFAP reimbursement rates and expanded CCFAP eligibility criteria. This has led to an increase in funding directed through the state to regulated programs; early indicators are that at least some of these programs have used this funding to increase compensation and benefits for their staff. VTAEYC’s Advancing the Profession program spotlights the need to advance child care as a profession, including increasing wages and providing benefits to staff. Vermont offers professional development bonuses to early childhood professionals who increase their qualifications and achieve professional credentials and degrees. Vermont operates the Student Loan Repayment Program for early childhood educators, which provides full-time educators who have earned an early childhood-related degree with up to $4,000 of debt relief annually. Vermont is investing in providing programmatic and coaching support to program participants through STARS. These supports may include coaching programs on how to better support their staff members, and informing them about the resources that are available to aid them in those efforts. 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. CDD has established CCFAP reimbursement rates and eligibility at levels designed to support child care programs in offering their staff members higher wages and benefits. 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 Act 76 investments will significantly increase reimbursement for childcare programs, thus allowing programs to offer more robust benefits to their staff. These benefits include health insurance, paid sick leave, and retirement benefits. Vermont's Business Technical Assistance also provides TA to programs to help with financial planning and budgeting for benefits. d. Describe any Lead Agency ongoing efforts and future plans to support the mental health and well-being of the child care workforce. CDD supports the Vermont Early Childhood Networks ("VECN"): peer networks of early childhood educators. One of VECN’s goals is to provide mental health, wellness and stress management support to all network members, particularly focusing on the needs of FCCH staff. VECN’s strategies for support include offering professionals a series of training opportunities centered on mental health, promoting wellness and stress management strategies, and building relationships with community partners that offer mental health and wellness supports. In addition, the state’s leading professional development partners, NL at CCV and Vermont Afterschool, offer mental health and wellness trainings to early childhood professionals. e. Describe any other strategies the Lead Agency is developing and/or implementing to support providers’ recruitment and retention of the child care workforce. CDD is supporting capacity-building efforts through the First Children’s Finance Business Technical Assistance Program ("BTAP"). This program supports the start-up of new programs, including those programs’ recruitment efforts. The state is currently exploring a partnership with Vermont’s Career Technical Education ("CTE") centers, with the goal of developing a program for recruiting and training adults interested in entering the ECE workforce. It is anticipated that we will know more about the possibility of this program following an evaluation of our current Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program; this evaluation is scheduled to be completed at the end of November 2024. 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. CDD’s partnership with First Children’s Finance to operate BTAP provides a variety of business supports for individuals managing early childhood and afterschool programs. First Children's Finance and BTAP helps early childhood programs establish successful, sustainable business practices through the provision of training and support, and by connecting programs to resources reflecting their unique business needs. First Children's Finance also supports the SharedServicesVT website, which provides child care providers with information and resources on topics related to program administration, business operations, marketing, human resources, and more. Vermont licensing regulations require center-based program directors to either hire a business manager, or to obtain coursework related to program management, business practices and legal and financial issues related to operating a sustainable child care program. Programs can meet this requirement through participation in the NL at CCV’s VECAP Program Director Credential. Coursework is related to business practices and covers program management, leadership, mentoring/supervision, human resources management, and legal and financial issues. CDD provides funding for the Vermont Early Childhood Network ("VECN"), local groups of early childhood professionals across Vermont who provide peer-to-peer support of each others’ professional growth efforts. Issues related to business development and management, and FCCH administration, are often primary topics at VECN trainings and monthly network meetings. CDD plans to continue funding the VECN as a part of the state’s agreement to implement the System for Program Access to Resources for Quality Supports Program ("SPARQS"). SPARQS is a long-term, responsive, wraparound system of resources to support high quality for all regulated child care programs in Vermont. CDD also refers program leaders to the Vermont Small Business Development Center, which provides no-cost, confidential business advising and training services to new and established small businesses in Vermont. 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: Vermont regulations require CBCCPPs with a capacity greater than twelve (12) children to either appoint a qualified business manager or ensure that the appointed Director takes a college level business course related to legal and financial issues within the first year of Directorship. Courses are offered regularly through the Vermont Higher Education Collaborative or CCV, and scholarships are available through the CDD Tuition Assistance Grant program to support course enrollment. 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: CDD is committed to support early childhood professionals with limited English proficiency and is in the process of implementing a recent policy on language accessibility that has been developed by the Vermont Agency of Human Services. This new policy requires CDD to provide language access services to individuals who cannot speak, understand, read, or write English fluently, and to those who are deafblind or hard of hearing who need interpretive services, in order to meaningfully access CDD’s programs. Each page on Agency of Human Service websites currently embeds Google Translate to give individuals access to the state’s information in the language of their choice. As AHS and CDD continue to implement this policy, we expect that other language accessibility resources and services will be made available through CDD to people who need them. This new policy enhances CDD’s longstanding practice of supporting child care staff with limited English proficiency through a variety of measures for translation services. CDD also supports providers whose preferred language is not a written language through phone interpretation services or through a visit by CDD staff or an in-person interpreter. b. Providers and staff who have disabilities: CDD’s website conforms with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for accessibility. This requirement is echoed in recent AHS accessibility policy, which is publicly available on the AHS website. CDD’s resources are written in plain language and at an 8th-grade reading level or lower whenever possible; this is something that we are giving increased attention to as a part of hiring a new Communications specialist, whose position was recently created by Act 76 funding. All electronic materials are in file formats that are accessible, as required by the State of Vermont’s branding and accessibility standards. CDD assists providers with any specialized needs that they may have related to processing written or verbal communication information. CDD does this by providing direct supports, and by providing referrals to outside agencies offering accessibility services.