Early Educator Compensation – Policy Solutions

Thanks you to those of you who represented your Bright Start communities’ ECE workforce action teams at our April 5th session!

We featured Albert Wat, Senior Policy Director for the Alliance for Early Success on how states and communities can bolster early educator compensation in the childcare space. ICYMI – you can click below to view the recording and access other resources mentioned.

View the Session Recording

Below are the links referenced during the session :

Resource Links Shared by Albert Wat during his presentation:

General

• Compensation Database – Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
• State Policy Dashboard – Child Care Aware of America
• Child Care Policy Roadmap – Alliance for Early Success
• Opportunities to Improve Benefits for Home-Based Providers – Home Grown
• Paths Forward to Salary Parity for New York – Bank Street College of Education

Wages

• DC – https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/page_content/attachments/FY24%20Minimum%20Salaries%20and%20Salary%20Schedule%20for%20Early%20Childhood%20Educators.pdf
• IL – Smart Start Workforce Grants https://www.ilgateways.com/smart-start/smart-start-workforce-grants 
• MN – Great Start Compensation Support Payment https://mn.gov/dhs/partners-and-providers/grants-rfps/great-start-grants/compensation-support/ 

Benefits

• Health Benefits: CA – result of collective bargaining through the child care union – 2023, unionized family child care providers in California secured funding for a collective bargaining agreement that includes a recurring $100 million for health care and $80 million for a retirement fund, making California the first state in the country to offer providers this benefit.
• Loan forgiveness: In 2021, Vermont passed H171, which created a new loan repayment program that provides up to $4,000 annually to reduce student debt for early childhood educators who commit to working in a regulated program in the state for 12 months
• Categorical Eligibility
  • KY – https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/922/002/160/
  • MA – https://www.mass.gov/doc/interim-income-eligible-child-care-financial-assistance-program-policies-october-1-2023/download

Foundational Actions

• Cost of Quality Studies
  • Children’s Funding Project
  • P-5 Fiscal Strategies
  • Center for Early Learning Funding Equity
  • Map of States with Fiscal Modeling Studies: https://www.prenatal5fiscal.org/fiscal-modeling

Resources for Developing Salary Scales:

• • A Look at Salary/Wage Scales for the Early Childhood Educator Workforce
  • Salary Scales for Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce
  • A Salary Scale Toolkit for Supporting the use of Salary Scales in Early Childhood Programs
  • NC salary scale – https://www.childcareservices.org/wp-content/uploads/North-Carolina-Early-Childhood-Compensation-Collaborative-Model-Salary-Scale-for-Early-Education-Teachers_5_3.pdf
  • Raising Revenue:
    • Children’s Funding Project

Also,

• Participant from Hamilton County, Christy Vandergriff, shared a link: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/download/?file=/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BPC_ECI_Workforce_Report_FINAL.pdf