Season 2, Episode 9: How States are Responding to Child Care Staffing Shortages, with Jacob Stewart

07/14/22 • 55 min

In this podcast, Jacob Stewart, director of state government relations at the Early Care and Education Consortium, describes what individual states are doing to combat staffing shortages in child care.
Massachusetts, for example, launched a general, statewide workforce bonus for which child care providers are eligible to receive $4,000 per new employee hired and retained for 60 days.
Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania have offered multiple bonuses ranging between $300 and $1,200 per worker.
Other states are offering wage enhancements, internship programs, a refundable tax credit, financial support to obtain credentials that are state required as well as enabling employees to leverage their experience to move up career ladders and more!
These findings are part of a data-packed report his organization recently put out titled "The Child Care Workforce Shortage: Solutions from Around the Country."
As of February 2022, two-thirds of providers reported a staffing shortage that affected their ability to serve families; of those, 52% were forced to serve fewer children while 37% had a longer waiting list, according to the report.
Read the full report here!
Listen as Jacob delves into the findings of this report ... and he describes negotiations that are happening for legislation that could help the child care industry despite the demise of the Build Back Better plan.

Previous Episode

Season 2, Episode 8: Setting Expectations for — and Connecting with — Your Child Care Staff, with Chanie Wilschanski

Chanie Wilschanski is known as the "school culture doctor" because she can diagnose the root cause of the struggle in a child care center in less that 10 minutes.
She's an early childhood leadership coach and the CEO of Schools of Excellence, and in this podcast she discusses what she sees in those 10 minutes and much more.

" You need to understand where you're spending your time," Chanie says. "And then you can hit your goals."
She talks about making sure you're setting appropriate expectations for your staff while maintaining high standards and staying true to your values.
Chanie also describes how to connect with your teachers, which is so vital as early childhood education leaders struggle to find and retain staff, as well as the importance of taking care of yourself.
Her goals are:

Not to teach you what to think, but how to think
Not to show you what you’re lacking, but remind you that everything you need is inside you
Instead of showing you 50 steps, the next one step that gives you a win

Learn more about Chanie's work at her Schools of Excellence website and you can find her own podcast series here!

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Season 2, Episode 10: A Look at Colorado's New Law to Fund 10 Hours a Week of Preschool, with Nicole Riehl

In this podcast, Nicole Riehl, president and CEO of Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (better known as EPIC), discusses a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all 4-year-olds, and what that means for child care providers and families.

Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years and her background includes extensive work with Denver’s preschool programs as well as coordinating various early childhood quality improvement events, resource, and activities across Colorado. She was the CEO of Denver’s Early Childhood Council before taking over the helm of EPIC in 2019.
She discusses how this new state law was designed for flexibility to allow parents to choose what preschool their children can attend and still be eligible for those 10 hours of preschool, as well as the importance of making the program accessible and easy to use for providers and families.
To learn more about Colorado Epic, visits its website: www.coloradoepic.org.

The Child Care Business Podcast - Season 2, Episode 9: How States are Responding to Child Care Staffing Shortages, with Jacob Stewart

Transcript

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Welcome to the childcare business podcast brought to you by ProCare solutions.

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This podcast is all about giving childcare , preschool daycare after school and other early education professionals, a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies and inspiration you can use to thrive. You'll hear from a variety of childcare thought leaders, including educators, owners, and industry experts on ways