This essay was adapted from a piece posted on Medium.

About nine months ago, Dara told me she was interested in bringing her mother and nephew from Syria to the United States, and she needed assistance. She had immigrated to Evanston, Illinois from Syria five years ago, along with her husband and five children and had a goal of reuniting with her family.

I wanted to help but had no idea where to start. As a home visitor with the federally funded Head Start/Early Head Start program, my goal is to help families create and achieve goals related to parenting their young children. I work with Dara’s 4-year-old daughter, Naya, but I support her whole family. (I have changed their names in this essay to protect their privacy and they’ve agreed to have their story shared.) As their home visitor, I provide resources, connection and experiences to her family and the other families I serve.

Over the years, in addition to bringing lessons and activities for the children I work with, I’ve supported families in accessing food and diapers, filling out school enrollment forms and securing affordable housing — but this was a new request for me.

I decided to start by doing some research on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. I learned a bit about the process, then I printed out the necessary documents and contacted my organization’s Arabic interpreter to get translation support.

Dara needed to fill out an I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition form. I looked at the form myself, and even as a native English speaker, it felt daunting. I knew that Dara was even more in the dark. We worked for months, assembling the information she needed. A few weeks ago, when we had finally completed the extensive document, I handed Dara two huge envelopes and explained that she would need to take them to the post office, have them weighed for postage and sent.

“I don’t know how to do that,” she told me.

Dara had never been to the U.S. post office. We decided that we’d plan a trip together, along with her children, so they could learn about the experience of sending mail. I prepared them as best I could by sharing what we would encounter. I couldn’t anticipate everything, but that conversation helped set us up for success. On the day of the trip, Dara and her children shared a new experience — one that helped them all grow. It takes a lot of courage to go outside your comfort zone, and the best part was that her children were there to see their mother trying something new as she was advocating for her family.

I’ve been an early childhood educator for 25 years. In that time, I’ve been a teacher, the owner and director of a preschool and, now, a home visitor. My professional background in early childhood has given me insight into the critical nature of this work. So, too, does my personal experience as a mother who navigated a difficult entry into parenthood, breastfeeding an infant with colic and settling into the reality that taking maternity leave reduced our family’s income. Reflecting back, I would have loved to have the reassurance and support of a home visitor.

How Home Visiting Programs Support Families

Through my work as a home visitor, I serve 11 children and their families, including Naya’s. All of these families speak a language other than English in their home, and eight of the families are immigrants to the U.S. During my weekly visits with each family, I provide parents with resources as well as opportunities to learn and practice skills that will help their young children thrive. The idea is that parents and caregivers are a child’s first teacher and I support them in being the best teachers they can be. Participation in home visiting programs can support families with health and well-being, and based on my experience, these programs are especially effective with immigrant families.

During my visits, I bring developmentally appropriate lessons for Naya, who is fluent in Arabic and English. Just like many kids who are learning two languages, she is a little behind on learning the names of letters and numbers, but as I have assured many parents, being bilingual is so beneficial to brain development, and she will catch up with her monolingual classmates.

Over the past year, in addition to bringing these activities for Naya and moving forward on the travel documents, I have helped Dara and her family make a lot of progress on other goals. By working with one of our partner resource groups, the family of seven was able to secure new housing, moving out of a two-bedroom apartment and into a five-bedroom house. Once they moved, I was able to help Dara in registering her older children in a new school system. The process was almost as difficult as completing the I-730 form, but together, we got through it.

Every family has their own unique goals and needs, so my work differs depending on who I’m supporting. Sometimes I educate parents on child development and safety; other times I provide resources for engaging with their children. And in some cases, I help them navigate challenges they’re facing as a family, whether it’s finding emergency funding when their SNAP benefits are delayed, learning a new bus route to school or, most recently, visiting the post office.

Expanding Access Is Key

Research has shown that investing in early childhood education has significant benefits for children and families. And there’s evidence that home visiting programs are invaluable for parents like Dara. Yet these programs are perpetually underfunded and understaffed. The impact that home visitors make on a child’s development and a family’s well-being is huge, but access is limited. There’s not enough funding to make them available to every child that needs and qualifies for them.

We can increase access for children and their families by developing a stronger awareness of the benefits these programs offer to children, families and society. We can advocate for more federal dollars and consistent funding to enable every family that wants to benefit from this service to have immediate access, rather than being put on a wait list, which can be years long.

In the vein of empowering families, a solution was suggested during a focus group I recently participated in for home visitors in Illinois. The idea was to create a pathway for parents who participate in home visiting programs to receive training in child development, goal setting and documentation skills, so they could become home visitors themselves. This kind of approach would require supervision, support and funding, but it’s something that could boost the original family’s well-being by providing training, improving financial stability and increasing connections throughout the community — and it could exponentially help others.

Imagine Dara guiding people through the process of registering children for school or taking children to the post office. Would she need some guidance and support in doing this? Of course, we all do. But she would offer families, especially those who are new to this country, her invaluable experience, and it would bring her closer to her own personal goals.

© Zoteva / Shutterstock

2023 was the hottest year ever recorded on the planet — by far. More than halfway in, 2024 is on track to exceed it, with July the hottest month on record and July 22 the hottest day.

Everyone is feeling it — energy bills are up, social plans are disrupted, sleep and exercise are more elusive. In early care and education, children and caregivers are finding that it’s disrupting their everyday routines and experiences.

“The heat is different this year for us,” says Tessie Ragan, owner of Perfect Start Learning, a licensed home-based child care program in Rosamond, California, which she describes as the “desert part” of the state.

By the end of June, temperatures regularly approached or exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit in her Southern California community.

Although Ragan runs a nature-based summer camp for 3- to 6-year-olds, the weather made it impossible for them to be outside some days.

“It’s just too hot for them,” she concedes. “Some of the kids started breathing heavy. It just made it miserable for them to be outside.”

Without a shade structure or heat-resistant playground equipment, much of Tessie Ragan's backyard is unsafe for children in her program during the hottest weeks of the summer. Photo courtesy of Ragan.

Extreme heat can be dangerous for anyone, but it’s especially troubling for young children.

Children under age 5 are physically more susceptible to the negative effects of extreme heat, explains Allie Schneider, an early childhood education policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that recently published a report on the topic.

Our sector is not prepared for this.

— Angie Garling

Little kids’ bodies heat up faster and cool down slower. They have fewer sweat glands. And any hit to their sleep or concentration can have a deleterious effect on their learning and development, Schneider says. Plus, when temperatures are up, air quality tends to go down, which is also worse for kids, who inhale and exhale about twice as often as adults.

As temperatures trend upward, already-hot places like Rosamond are getting hotter, while more temperate regions that have long escaped a need for indoor air conditioning and outdoor heat-mitigation systems are now having to adjust to a new normal.

That’s putting a strain on early care and education programs, which are responsible — first and foremost — for keeping kids safe and healthy, but seldom have access to the funds needed to add or upgrade heat-mitigation systems.

“They absolutely do not have the infrastructure that they need,” says Angie Garling, senior vice president of early care and education at Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a national community development financial institution with an early care and education team focused on investing in the child care ecosystem. “Our sector is not prepared for this.”

Garling often hears from child care providers, whose messages boil down to this: “I know about kids. I know what I need for kids. Somebody needs to help me figure out the rest.”

Providers want support figuring out how to navigate, prioritize and afford solutions like solar panels and HVAC systems.

“They’re also very cost conscious, because they’re severely underpaid and under-reimbursed,” Garling adds.

Ragan has been running her summer camp for years. She used to start it after her program’s school year ended in May, with camp running for six weeks, from the first of June to mid-July.

A few years ago, grappling with extreme heat that had become “insane,” she had to reconsider her approach.

“We could not be comfortable or safe outside,” Ragan recalls. She says she was scared for the kids. “They all started turning bright red. No matter how much water I gave them. … They slowed down and weren’t enjoying themselves.”

She adds: “It made it impossible for us to have actual, meaningful summer camp activities.”

The plastic play equipment would get so hot it could burn a child’s skin. The overhang on her house only extended so far, leaving much of the backyard exposed to the sun. She couldn’t afford to buy a misting system or a larger shade structure or wooden playground equipment — all thousands of dollars apiece — to ease the situation.

The roof on Tessie Ragan's home covers a portion of the backyard, offering kids in her program a shaded patio. But the sun-exposed area is often too hot for children. Photo courtesy of Ragan.

“It didn’t seem like it was in the children’s best interest for me to run the summer camp [if] we didn’t have the ability to be outside as much as they need to be outside,” says Ragan, who talks about the importance of outdoor play for kids’ gross motor development.

She decided to abbreviate camp going forward, wrapping up at the end of June. That meant losing two weeks of income, but it would allow her to cut out two of the hottest weeks of the summer.

Ragan made a personal sacrifice to prioritize children’s health. As a provider, she knows what signs to look out for and when kids might be reaching their limit.

Because young children are less able to recognize and communicate when they are experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion, it falls to the caregivers in their lives to notice and respond.

That is an important but tricky responsibility, says Schneider, since there is no standardized guidance for caregivers. Some pediatricians say that anything above 85 degrees could harm a child’s health, she notes, but it’s difficult to pinpoint a single temperature, since humidity, sun exposure and exertion are factors to consider.

Still, Schneider believes clear guidance is both achievable and necessary for early childhood programs and providers in the near term, but she stops short of saying there should be any requirements around it.

“One hesitation we have about including a specific, enforceable requirement in child care licensing programs, is that it does present a financial barrier for providers who are already operating on very thin margins,” she explains.

Garling, at LIIF Fund, agrees — and believes that’s why early childhood should be prioritized for climate adaptations. These include outdoor improvements such as heat-resistant play equipment, misting systems, trees, solar panels and shade structures, as well as indoor upgrades like insulated windows, air purifiers and electric HVAC systems.

“Businesses can benefit, and therefore children can benefit,” Garling says. “Children can be inside in a healthy way, and they can be outside.”

We’re worried about paying our bills, paying our staff. It leaves very little — almost nothing — to save for something like this.

— Nancy Harvey

Nancy Harvey, a home-based provider in Oakland, California, has welcomed some climate adaptations in her home over the last year.

With the help of a grant from LIIF, Harvey was able to replace an outdated heating system and get air conditioning in her home for the first time. (That grant is part of the work LIIF is managing on behalf of the state of California to help about 4,000 providers expand and improve their physical spaces.)

Oakland doesn’t experience some of the extreme temperatures that many other parts of the country do, Harvey acknowledges, but it can still get up into the 90s in the summer and down to the 40s in the winter.

Last October, Harvey got a ductless mini-split heat pump installed in the ceiling on the first floor of her home. The placement alone is a huge relief, she says, since her old system was a wall heater that she always feared a child would burn themselves on (she had a plastic lattice cover on it for safety, but says: “Has that ever stopped a child?”)

With the help of a grant, Nancy Harvey received a new energy-efficient ductless mini-split heat pump, making her house more comfortable during winter and summer. Photo courtesy of LIIF.

The new system has made the inside of Harvey’s house more comfortable during both winter and summer, she says.

“This is a learning environment,” she emphasizes. “[Now], we don’t have to worry. It enables the children to focus and have a better educational environment.”

Without the grant, she never would have been able to afford these upgrades, Harvey says.

“We don’t have enough funding. We’re worried about paying our bills, paying our staff,” she says. “It leaves very little — almost nothing — to save for something like this.”

Extreme heat can cause real, serious health effects, especially for children with asthma and other respiratory issues. But many people are quick to point out that, when it’s too hot for children to be outside, they are also denied key gross motor development opportunities and quintessential experiences of being a kid.

“Children this age — they love outdoor play,” says Harvey. “They thrive on it. It is certainly a very big disappointment when they can’t go outside and breathe in clean air, fresh air.”

Harvey has woven numerous outdoor activities into her program, from painting outside to riding bicycles to setting up a “castle” they can play in.

When they're stuck inside — due to extreme temperatures or bad air quality from wildfire smoke — “they miss all of that,” she says. “Those are important developmental activities that they’re not able to enjoy when we’re forced to be inside.”

© K2L Family / Shutterstock

This story was originally published by The Daily Yonder.

Chris Nelson teaches preschool in rural Vermont, just a few miles from the Canadian border, but not in the school or child care center most people think of when they imagine state or locally funded pre-K. Instead, her 3- and 4-year-old students are integrated into her five-star-rated home-based child care program, where she also cares for younger children and a few kids who come after school until their working parents pick them up.

Many of those parents would have to drive more than an hour to reach a center- or school-based pre-K program where the state covers tuition for just 10 hours a week. In contrast, Nelson’s program is open 12 hours a day to cover parents’ commutes, the nontraditional hours of shift workers and those who do seasonal work.

Nelson would like to continue teaching pre-K, and parents of those children would like to receive the state’s $3,800 free tuition for enrolling in Nelson’s program. However, new recommendations from Vermont’s School Board Insurance Trust (VSBIT), which insures schools and preschool programs, effectively exclude home-based providers from participation, because the $2 million insurance policy they recommend (based on school district needs) isn’t even available to home-based child care providers, sometimes also called family child care providers or FCCs. Nelson brought the problem to the attention of state child care regulators. In a memo released in mid-June to school district superintendents, Vermont Agencies of Education and Human Services indicate that local departments of education can waive the insurance requirement for home-based pre-K programs that are unable or cannot afford to secure the policy recommended by VSBIT. Because this policy change has come so late, just two months before the 2024 school year begins, when most districts have already made decisions about partnerships with private pre-K providers, it remains to be seen how many home-based child care providers will be able to offer pre-K this year.

Vermont, like many states, is committed to a mixed-delivery model for pre-K education, allowing the state’s pre-K tuition subsidy to be applied for programs in a variety of existing settings, including those based in homes. Nevertheless, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) State of Preschool 2023 Yearbook, in 2022-2023, more than 60 percent of pre-K children served were in public school settings, not private programs or home-based child care options. Together, all of those programs served just 44 percent of eligible 4-year-olds and 17 percent of 3-year-olds. More than half of all 3- and 4-year-old children still do not attend preschool. For many rural families especially, the barriers of paying for and getting their children to a pre-K program are just too great.

Creating “universal” access to high-quality pre-K will require a massive, long-term public investment (as much as $33 billion, according to NIEER). In the near term, states can increase access by leveraging the existing infrastructure for providing pre-K in the home-based programs that already serve many rural families. Policy experts like The Erikson Institute and NIEER recommend “meaningfully” including and supporting home-based child care providers in the expansion and implementation of publicly funded pre-K as a promising first step to increasing access, especially in states where more than 50 percent of the population lives in a child care desert. A new initiative led by Home Grown, a national funder collaborative focused on improving the quality of and access to home-based child care, in partnership with NIEER, would support state, city, county and tribal government leaders to include home-based child care in their pre-K programs.

States’ commitment to a mixed-delivery model often falters in part because many, like Vermont, have a governance structure that reinforces a tendency to see pre-K as just an additional grade before kindergarten, with regulations and funding that follow the template of elementary education. These include layers of requirements for teacher licensure, classroom environments and administrative oversight. Meanwhile, home-based child care is overseen by the department of social services, with different parameters for licensure and oversight. Former state Rep. Ashton Clemmons, who co-chaired the early childhood caucus in North Carolina’s General Assembly, notes that this “disalignment” works to segregate infant-toddler caregivers from those who teach pre-K.

“If you give parents a voucher and let them go where they want to, many parents would choose FCCs for pre-K as well as care for their infants and toddlers,” says Rachel Bymun, a licensed home-based child care provider in Bay Point, California, a low-income, primarily immigrant community an hour from San Francisco. She notes that although California also subscribes to a mixed-delivery model, her county does not have the Family Child Care Home Education Network that would enable home-based child care providers like her to participate in California’s subsidized pre-K program. As a result, families in her county who wish to access publicly funded pre-K have to leave her program and enroll in another setting.

The families who prefer a home-based child care environment often are the most underserved and hard to reach, including families of color, those in rural communities, those who speak languages other than English, and those who work nontraditional hours, according to Alexandra Patterson, director of policy and strategy at Home Grown, a national collaborative of funders supporting home-based child care: “Excluding these providers from the formal pre-K system further marginalizes the families and providers who most need those resources.”

Another significant barrier to access is that working parents need more than two to six hours of care per day for 180 days a year, which is the typical pre-K school year. Many eligible working parents struggle to get multiple children of different ages to different schools or can’t find a preschool with an open slot that is also within commuting distance from their work and home. Home-based pre-K, on the other hand, is typically integrated into a comprehensive child care program serving multiple children of mixed ages that is open all day and year-round. This family-like setting, according to this report from The Erikson Institute, provides continuity and stability for children, culturally and linguistically responsive care, individualized education, and fosters the community connections and relationships that families rely on for support from each other and their child’s teacher.

Nelson’s nature-based, play-based approach to learning in a small, mixed-age group is a strength of home-based pre-K that many parents prefer to hectic classrooms full of 20 or 30 4-year-olds.

“Schools mandate 275 days a year for learning,” she says, “but I believe every single minute is a teachable moment. On a typical day, we might visit the pond to collect tadpoles and bring them back so that children can learn about life cycles. The two-year-olds might want to feel the little jelly eggs, and the older ones will see that the eggs grow legs and tails and grow into frogs.”

This approach is also endorsed by the National Academies New Vision for High Quality Preschool Curriculum. The “Magic 8” preschool classroom practices, according to child development researchers, include precisely the practices FCCs implement daily in their homes: lots of listening to children, holistic sequential activities, cooperative interactions between kids, and minimal time spent in transition from one space to another or between lessons. These videos from Home Grown feature home-based child care providers demonstrating these practices as they teach and care for mixed-age groups of children.

How could publicly funded pre-K programs enroll more children and accommodate the needs of more families? NIEER’s recent report and recommendations from the Erikson Institute on pay equity and support for providers detail strategies for setting pre-K reimbursement rates to reflect the true cost of providing high-quality pre-K services in a home-based child care setting. These include supporting home-based providers with educational, coaching and evaluation programs specific to preschool standards, setting environmental recommendations and the ratio of infants to toddlers allowed under a caregiver’s license appropriately for home-based settings. Changes like these would allow Nelson and other home-based child care providers to sustain their programs and open their doors to 3- and 4-year-olds who are waiting in the wings for school to start. This solution also builds on and strengthens the existing capacity of FCC educators, buttressing states’ workforces and economies in both the short and long terms.

What’s more, this solution doesn’t require building new preschool wings onto aging school buildings or training up a new cadre of preschool teachers. What it does require, says Patterson, is an “innovative and inclusive view of family child care homes as centers of learning, and of qualified caregivers who operate them as early childhood educators,” that is, pre-K teachers deserving of all the same support and salary afforded to school- or center-based pre-K programs.

© noBorders - Brayden Howie / Shutterstock

Tiaja Gundy was just 19 years old when she started working at Federal Hill House, an early learning center in Providence, Rhode Island. It was 2016, and back then, she lacked experience and expertise working with young children. She had no intention of staying in the field long-term.

This story also appeared in The 19th.

But the work grew on her. Gundy started out as a “floater,” helping with infants, toddlers and preschoolers as needed. She found she loved being around children.

As years passed, Gundy gained experience, and she moved into an assistant teaching position in a toddler classroom. Yet she was still missing some of the critical knowledge about child development that would allow her to continue growing in her career.

In 2021, Gundy recalls, one of her supervisors pulled her aside, and said, “You’re very promising. I know you can go farther in this field,” then told her about an interesting opportunity.

Rhode Island was launching a registered apprenticeship program for early childhood educators. With her employer’s support, Gundy would get to continue her paid teaching job as she took college courses, pursuing a Child Development Associate (CDA), a nationally recognized credential for those who work in early care and education settings. It would set her up to one day become a lead teacher. The apprenticeship would come with guaranteed wage increases, too.

Tiaja Gundy, a toddler teacher in Providence, Rhode Island.

The thought of balancing both work and school again was daunting, Gundy admits, but she was encouraged by her colleagues and excited to deepen her understanding of early childhood education. She decided to apply.

For decades, apprenticeship has been a popular career pathway for occupations such as electricians, plumbers and carpenters. In early care and education, however, there was limited uptake of the model.

Recently, that has changed — and fast. A decade ago, only a handful of states had registered apprenticeship programs in early childhood education. Five years ago, that had risen to about a dozen. As of last year, 35 states had an apprenticeship program for child care and early childhood education, and another seven states were developing them, according to a report published by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).

In 2021, the last year for which there is available data, early childhood education was one of the five fastest-growing occupations for apprenticeship, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“There’s just been an explosion,” says Linda Smith, who authored the BPC’s apprenticeship report last summer and has since joined the Buffett Early Childhood Institute as director of policy. “It is happening all over this country.”

Explaining the ‘Explosion’

Smith sees at least two reasons for the emergence and rapid growth of this model in early childhood education.

The first is that more federal funding has become available in recent years. At least 10 states are using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to build or expand their child care apprenticeship programs, and 13 are using Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five funds. As many as 15 states are using money from the Child Care and Development Fund, which received a $15 billion boost under ARPA.

The second reason is that there is increased awareness of how essential and how endangered the early care and education sector is.

“We’re in a tough spot right now with child care in this country,” Smith says soberly. “We have a workforce problem on our hands. Everyone is crying for child care workers. They can’t fill jobs. Wages are low. Child care programs can’t compete with big box stores, fast food, you name it.”

Broad recognition of that reality, Smith says, made policymakers and other leaders more willing to invest in the early education workforce.

It also helps, she adds, that people understand what apprenticeships are. It’s a well-established model that they can visualize and — importantly — measure.

From day one, an apprentice is a W-2 employee. There is no such thing as an unpaid apprentice.

— Randi Wolfe

Randi Wolfe, founder and executive director of Early Care and Education Pathways to Success (ECEPTS), an organization that provides training and technical assistance to get programs registered as apprenticeships, believes this model is proliferating in early care and education because it’s a natural fit for the field’s workforce development needs.

The early care and education workforce, Wolfe points out, is mostly made up of low-income women, and they are disproportionately women of color, immigrants, non-native English speakers and first-generation college students.

“Asking those people to do an internship that is unpaid creates unintended inequity,” Wolfe says. “From day one, an apprentice is a W-2 employee. There is no such thing as an unpaid apprentice.”

It works well for both educators and early learning programs, she adds. Early childhood educators who can’t afford to miss out on wages while they earn a degree get to do both at the same time — and at little or no cost. They get raises throughout the apprenticeship and, in many cases, are eligible for a promotion once they complete it.

Their employers, meanwhile, end up with highly skilled teachers who, after investing significant time and energy into their careers, are more likely to remain in the field.

“They’re the best qualified candidate,” Wolfe says of apprentices. “You’ve trained them. You’ve grown them.”

For early learning programs, better-qualified teachers can also help them move up the scale on their state’s quality rating system. Higher quality ratings are tied to higher subsidy reimbursement rates in many states. In short, apprentices help a program’s bottom line.

All of these outcomes support children and families, who benefit greatly from having teachers who provide high-quality, research-backed care and education.

The Nuts and Bolts of Apprenticeships

To be considered a “registered” apprenticeship, programs must meet a number of criteria and get approval from the U.S. Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency. All registered apprenticeships have a sponsor, such as a community-based organization, a workforce intermediary or a business, that manages program operations. Registered apprenticeship programs have a few other key ingredients:

• Employers must partner with apprentices, allowing them to learn while they earn. In early care and education, the employers are early learning programs.
• Apprentices must receive on-the-job training with opportunities to practice their new skills in context. Many programs pair apprentices with a mentor to fulfill this goal.
• Apprentices must receive instruction related to their industry. In early care and education, that happens in a classroom setting, often at a community college but at four-year institutions too. Employers are expected to provide support and flexibility so apprentices can attend classes and complete coursework.
• Apprentices are guaranteed incremental wage increases as their knowledge and skills grow. This is a huge win for early educators, who have some of the lowest wages in the country, but also a point of tension for programs, which are seldom in a financial position to pay staff more.
• Apprentices must receive a credential. In early education, that is usually a CDA or an associate degree, and sometimes a bachelor’s degree.

Despite the many criteria, there is still some flexibility for individual apprenticeship programs to put their own spin on the model.

In Rhode Island, where Gundy apprenticed, the program is exclusively for infant and toddler teachers, often the “least educated and least compensated” faction of the early childhood workforce, says Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, which helped develop and implement the program, in partnership with a state agency, and now manages it.

There is a notion in the field, Hildebrand says, that if you start out as an infant or toddler teacher, you can get more training and education and then “move up” to teaching preschool.

“It’s almost like a promotion,” she says, because preschool teachers typically earn more money and command more respect.

But that dynamic leads to the high turnover of infant and toddler teachers, which, given the challenges many programs already face with hiring and retention, and the legal requirements around staff-to-child ratios, can result in classroom closures and reduced slots for the youngest children. It certainly has in Rhode Island.

“The waiting list for infants and toddlers is absolutely astronomical,” Hildebrand says, acknowledging that’s true outside of Rhode Island too. “It is reaching critical levels at this point.”

With additional funding on the way, the apprenticeship may soon expand to preschool teachers, among whom there is ample interest, Hildebrand notes. But right now, Rhode Island is focused on retaining the teachers who are in the highest demand.

Minnesota’s registered apprenticeship program, which launched in summer 2023, includes a strong mentorship component. Each apprentice is paired with a mentor, often a colleague at the program where they work, says Erin Young, who manages the program for Child Care Aware of Minnesota.

“That’s the secret sauce,” says Young. “That’s the magic.”

Mentors, who receive 24 hours of free training, guide apprentices through questions and topics ranging from children’s behavioral challenges, to curriculum implementation, to family engagement. That can be especially helpful for apprentices who are still quite new to the field of early childhood education, Young explains.

“It’s nice to have someone say, ‘It’s OK.’ ‘Try this.’ ‘Start here,’” Young says. “Having a mentor at the beginning of my early childhood career would’ve been a huge help.”

The mentorship made an impression on Katelyn Sarkar, an apprentice who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education leadership in June.

Katelyn Sarkar, a lead teacher and early childhood apprentice in Rochester, Minnesota, reads a book in her Head Start classroom. Photo courtesy of Sarkar.

Sarkar’s mentor would observe her in her classroom at a Head Start program in Rochester, Minnesota, then offer feedback and suggest strategies for her to try. “As an early childhood educator, I grew so much more in my skills because of that,” Sarkar shares.

Next up, Young is developing an apprenticeship model for licensed family child care providers, a group that is currently left out of most registered apprenticeship programs, despite being the “dominant form of care in rural Minnesota,” Young says, and an option preferred by many families.

“If it gets approved, that’s a really big win,” Young notes. “It opens the door for other states to do it.”

No Such Thing as a Silver Bullet

Although many early childhood advocates view the apprenticeship model as a promising strategy for workforce retention and improvement, they’re also quick to caution against overweighting its potential.

In early childhood, we tend to [want] a single solution to a complex problem. That does not work. ... Apprenticeships are never going to be the only answer.

— Linda Smith

“In early childhood, we tend to [want] a single solution to a complex problem. That does not work. The problems of child care in this country are very complicated,” says Smith of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. “Apprenticeships are never going to be the only answer.”

The model, while exciting, has its limitations, Smith adds.

Right now, apprenticeship cohorts tend to be quite small, with around five to 25 early childhood educators enrolled. Rhode Island graduated 16 apprentices in its pilot cohort and has another 17 enrolled now. Minnesota had 19 apprentices enrolled as of June.

That’s because apprenticeship programs are demanding, resource-intensive and very costly.

In Minnesota, for example, where early childhood apprenticeship costs fall on the high end, Young budgets $20,000 to $24,000 per apprentice per year. Apprenticeships there run for at least two years, she says.

That estimate includes covering 85 percent of the cost of college tuition and books, as well as giving apprentices an annual $2,000 stipend to help with transportation, internet access and their remaining 10 percent of tuition costs, and awarding them a small bonus at the end of their apprenticeship year.

It also includes an annual $5,000 stipend to employers to offset the costs of hosting an apprentice. In Minnesota, employers chip in the final 5 percent of tuition costs, and they are expected to give apprentices a $1 an hour raise at the end of each year, which typically works out to be about $2,000 a year, Young says. It can be hard for employers to budget for that right away, she notes. Mentors also receive a $3,500 annual stipend.

It’s expensive, to be sure, but Minnesota recently received $5 million from the state earmarked specifically for apprenticeships, Young says.

“There’s not going to be one silver bullet,” Young acknowledges, “but professionalizing the field, reducing turnover and increasing compensation is going to have to happen, and I am hoping the data will show this is one positive strategy that moves the needle on that.”

Now 27 and finished with her apprenticeship, Gundy has received her CDA and been promoted to lead teacher in her toddler classroom. She’s also pursuing her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.

“It was nice to get the science behind what I did,” Gundy shares about her apprenticeship experience. “It answered ‘why’ — why are we doing it this way, why is play important. … It helped me be an overall better teacher.”

© Photo courtesy of Katelyn Sarkar

Camai! You walk through a beautiful forest, listening to the nearby stream, and settle by the campfire, while your grandfather and a bear await you by the waterfall. After fishing with your grandfather, you carefully cross the stream and start collecting berries for the bear. Your adventures in the game Nunaka have just begun.

Created with Chugachmiut, a non-profit that serves Native tribes in the Chugach region of Alaska, Nunaka is an early childhood mobile game that excites 3-5-year-olds about the Alaska Native Sugpiaq culture, teaches the Sugt’stun language, and targets key school readiness goals. The game recently won the Formal Learning (Elementary) award at the James Paul GEE! Learning Game Awards.

In the story-driven game, players take on the role of a Sugpiaq child living with their grandparents, Emaa and Apaa, in a fictionalized version of a community based on villages in the Chugach region. Players create an avatar and explore the village, completing activities and minigames, while collecting items and interacting with other residents, including human characters and animals from the region.

Nunaka is now available as a mobile app in the App Store and Google Play for phones and tablets. Nunaka from FableVision Studios is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best New Product or Service” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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Kokotree, co-founded by Vivek Thakur and Tim Eisenhauer, is an educational learning app for toddlers and preschoolers. Originating from Vivek’s personal quest for structured, safe, and engaging digital content for his child, Kokotree offers a curated library of educational cartoons and videos, audio stories, and our letter tracing games, focusing on foundational topics like reading, writing, counting, and emotions.

Key Features:

• Curriculum-Based Learning: Meticulously crafted content, aligned with Common Core Standards, ensures structured and interactive experiences.
• User-Centric Interface: Intuitive design empowers young learners to navigate and consume content independently.
• Safety and Quality: An ad-free environment, complemented by in-house content production, guarantees safety and quality.
• Monthly Content Updates: Ensuring engagement and reinforcement of concepts.
• Integrated Animation Studio: Unique to Kokotree, it guarantees content quality and safety.

 

Benefits:

• Kokotree transforms passive screen time into enriching, active learning.
• Engages families, promoting shared educational experiences.
• Bridges on-screen learning with tangible off-screen activities, providing a comprehensive educational journey.

 

Kokotree’s recognition as a finalist at The EdTech Awards 2023 ”Cool Tools” vouches for its effectiveness. Its commitment to growth is showcased by continuous content updates, user feedback implementation, and its expansion into gaming and storytelling. With an ethos rooted in ensuring a perfect blend of fun, safety, and education, Kokotree stands as a beacon in the early childhood digital learning landscape. For these reasons and more, Kokotree is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best Mobile App Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more.

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While her daughter naps, Bridget Collins spends an hour reviewing and role-playing activities with her home visitor, Amanda Pedlar, in the front room of her house in San Antonio, Texas.

This week, the pair starts by discussing 3-year-old Brook’s burgeoning curiosity. Pedlar notes that it’s normal, at this stage of development, for Brook to ask “Why?” often, to want to try new things and to explore her environment. Then she gives Collins some suggestions for encouraging her daughter’s inquisitiveness.

Together, they work through an activity packet, covering topics such as language and motor skills. Collins will introduce these same activities to Brook in the coming days.

Bridget Collins, left, and home visitor Amanda Pedlar role-play washing their hands ahead of a "tasting party" where they will distinguish between sweet and crunchy foods. Photo by Emily Tate Sullivan.

When Pedlar and Collins role-play a “tasting party” — surrounded by stuffed toys and dolls, in the spirit of a tea party — and try to distinguish between foods that are sweet and those that are crunchy, Collins leans into the persona of her daughter, simulating the 3-year-old’s tendency to become distracted, to be silly and to interject with a defiant “no!”

It allows Pedlar the opportunity to model different reactions.

“It really helps to see her respond the way I should respond,” says Collins, who notes that she used to tell her kids “no” a lot but now sees a host of other ways to reply, such as with redirection.

Week after week, the activities help strengthen the bond between parent and child. Collins also says it’s boosted her confidence.

Kids are learning from their parents and caregivers from birth. But what they’re learning, and how they’re learning, varies widely. By connecting families with trained educators, home visiting programs give parents a chance to learn high-quality, developmentally appropriate activities to do with their kids and ask questions about their child’s needs and progress.

This year, EdSurge has been reporting on voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services and the difference they can make for children and families in the United States.

In one story, we examined how a home visiting program, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), is supporting immigrant families and connecting them to their communities. In another, we looked at how two long-running home visiting programs have adapted their models to serve home-based child care providers.

Over the past five months, we’ve observed home visits in two different states, attended a home visitor training and have spoken with more than 30 people to understand the home visiting landscape in this country and to see how these services support child development, improve school readiness, empower families and promote safe and healthy home learning environments.

Here are five key takeaways from our reporting:

1. Home visits do more than empower parents to be their child’s first and best teacher.

Home visits provide parents and caregivers with invaluable lessons and insights about their child’s learning and development. This can lead parents to become more confident teachers and more vocal advocates for their children. But the role of a home visitor extends beyond that.

“It's almost equally … about helping our families find the proper resources to improve their lives and improve maternal mental health,” notes Pedlar, the home visitor in San Antonio. “Things as simple as helping a family find a food resource and taking that burden off their shoulders can be really helpful.”

Home visitors provide goods such as diapers and wipes. They can connect families to resources such as food pantries, domestic violence prevention and early childhood intervention. And they’re often alerting parents to family-friendly events in the community, such as free days at the zoo.

Many home visiting programs also offer regular group meetings to convene participating families. For families new to this country, those meetings can provide a rare opportunity to meet others who come from their home country or speak their native language.

“At the end of the day, when you really deconstruct home visiting, it is about relationships,” notes Mimi Aledo-Sandoval, senior policy director at Alliance for Early Success, a nonprofit that works with early childhood advocates across all 50 states.

2. Home visiting programs can be beneficial for every family, but for now, their reach is limited.

More than 17 million families nationwide, including 23 million children, stand to benefit from voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services, according to the National Home Visiting Resource Center. That is to say, every pregnant woman and family with a child under age 6 has something to gain from these regular, in-home services.

“Being a parent is hard. Being a new parent is hard. I think that’s true regardless of socioeconomic strata, regardless of where you live. It is a life-changing event,” says Dr. Michael Warren, associate administrator of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “So it is helpful to be able to get resources and get assistance when you need help. Home visiting can help fill in those gaps.”

While home visits are proven to lead to positive outcomes for children and families, only some have access to these programs, due to lack of funding. In 2022, only about 270,000 families (about 1.6 percent of those eligible) received home visiting services.

With limited funding, many communities deploy home visiting programs for specific populations, such as low-income families, single-parent households, recent immigrants and refugee families, families experiencing homelessness and those with a history of substance abuse.

3. The U.S. government invests in home visiting programs, and funding is set to expand.

Many home visiting programs have been around for decades. Historically, they’d received state and local funds, as well as money from private foundations, says Sarah Crowne, senior research scientist at Child Trends, a nonprofit research center focused on children and families.

Then, in 2010, the federal government invested in home visiting programs for the first time with the creation of the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. “It was a game changer for states,” Crowne says.

To access those federal funds, states must work with one of the 24 home visiting programs that have met HHS criteria for evidence of effectiveness.

There has not been an opportunity like this in the recent past to be able to do this kind of expansion for home visiting services.

— Michael Warren

“It’s very rigorous,” Crowne adds. “It’s not just that any program can get these funds.”

Before Congress reauthorized MIECHV in 2022, the program was funded at $400 million annually. Now, under a new funding formula, that allotment will double to $800 million annually by 2027. Starting this year, the federal government will match $3 for every $1 in non-federal funds spent on home visiting programs, up to a certain amount.

“It really opens that door wide for [states], and it allows them to expand into communities where they know there is need but they have not been able to serve those communities to date,” says Warren, whose department oversees MIECHV.

“It really is exciting,” he adds. “There has not been an opportunity like this in the recent past to be able to do this kind of expansion for home visiting services.”

4. Home visits are not a replacement for early childhood education, but they can help establish a solid foundation.

In a world where every family has access to high-quality early childhood education for their children, home visits would be a complementary support.

“In some countries, that is what happens,” says Miriam Westheimer, chief program officer for HIPPY International. “In this country, given very limited resources, that’s rare.” More often, in the U.S., children are either attending an early childhood program, or families are receiving home visits, she says. “It should not be one or the other,” Westheimer adds. “It often is.”

No one is arguing that home visits should be a child’s only outside learning experience before school, but with early care and education inaccessible and unaffordable for many families, that may be their only option.

In such cases, research has shown that home visits can give children a solid foundation from which to build as they begin school. Home visits help them acquire social-emotional skills, early literacy skills, and fine motor development, such as holding a pencil and using scissors.

5. The impact of home visits is expanding by serving home-based child care providers.

Home visits have traditionally been delivered to parents and primary caregivers. But in recent years, a number of home visiting programs, including HIPPY, ParentChild+ and Parents as Teachers, have seen an opportunity to expand their reach by serving home-based child care providers.

The model has proven successful, and many programs are trying to grow their presence among child care providers, including unlicensed “family, friend and neighbor” (FFN) providers, who are typically excluded from training and education programs.

A number of counties and states are finding ways to use public funds to implement this model.

Because many home-based child care providers serve multiple children and have strong relationships with the families they serve, many policymakers see them as well-positioned to translate the expertise they gain from home visits into positive outcomes for children.

© Photo by Emily Tate Sullivan for EdSurge

I can still vividly recall the chaotic scene of introducing iPads into Kindergarten classrooms. Picture it: a room bustling with eager five-year-olds unaccustomed to center procedures and five iPads as the hottest commodity amidst blocks, dolls and traditional learning stations. What’s the Kindergarten version of the Hunger Games? Imagine that.

Managing a technology rollout for littles felt tough, but the real challenge didn’t hit me until I had to engage with some of the apps intended for our students. They were clunky, confusing and, more often than not, frustrating for our young learners. These children were still mastering the grip of big pencils and manipulating objects with their tiny fingers. Yet, they were expected to click on tiny multiple-choice buttons or log in independently.

Managing a technology rollout for littles felt tough, but the real challenge didn’t hit me until I had to engage with some of the apps intended for our students. They were clunky, confusing and, more often than not, frustrating for our young learners.

Amidst this chaos, I realized the importance of finding technology that caters to the needs of our youngest learners. It’s not just about having the latest gadgets; it's about leveraging technology to support their development and enrich their learning journey. Below are nine key features I look for during the edtech selection process.

1. Safe and Age-Appropriate

Ensure that the content is safe and suitable for young learners, with appropriate levels of challenge. Look for tools that provide a safe and secure online environment, with features such as password protection, privacy settings and age-appropriate content filters. Avoid apps and programs that include ads or in-app purchases, which can be distracting and may lead to inappropriate content exposure. Choose tools that offer customizable settings, allowing teachers to adjust the difficulty level and content to meet the needs of their students.

2. Inclusive Design

Inclusive design in educational technology is crucial to ensure that all students, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds, have equal access to learning opportunities. Tools designed with inclusivity in mind can accommodate a variety of learning styles and needs. For instance, apps that offer multiple modes of interaction, such as touch, voice and visual prompts, can support students with different abilities. Research supports the efficacy of inclusive design in improving educational outcomes.

3. Engaging and Fun

Digital learning tools should be interactive and entertaining, capturing children's attention while fostering learning. Look for apps and programs that use bright colors, interesting animations and fun characters to keep students engaged. Interactive games and activities that allow students to explore and learn at their own pace are particularly effective in captivating young learners. Khan Academy Kids is a prime example, offering joyful, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that appeal to young minds.

4. Aligned With Curriculum Goals

Choose tools that align with educational standards and support your curriculum objectives. Look for apps and programs that cover key concepts and skills taught in early elementary grades, such as phonics, early literacy, basic math skills and foundational science concepts. Ensure that the content is relevant to your curriculum goals and supports the learning objectives you want to achieve in your district. Khan Academy Kids, for instance, covers a broad range of subjects, ensuring that all essential areas of early learning are addressed, with an emphasis on boosting pre-literacy skills. Appropriately aligning digital tools with curriculum standards can enhance student achievement and retention.

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Young learners waiting in line for their devices

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5. Easy to Navigate

The interface should be intuitive and user-friendly, allowing even young children to use the tool independently. Avoid apps and programs with complex navigation or confusing instructions. Look for tools that have simple, easy-to-understand menus and controls, with clear prompts and feedback to guide students through the learning process. Teachers should be able to quickly and easily set up and manage the tools, saving time and frustration for both teachers and students.

6. Connect School and Home

Recommended Resources:

• Help students maximize summer learning with Camp Khan Kids
• Learn how to support teachers implementing The Science of Reading
• Access hundreds of free, diverse texts for young readers

Effective edtech tools should also bridge the gap between school and home. Parents often want to support their children's learning but may feel unsure how to do so effectively. This is where apps like Khan Academy Kids can be particularly valuable. They provide parents with the tools they need to practice essential skills, such as literacy, at home without requiring a deep foundation in teaching. With enthusiasm and a user-friendly platform, parents can engage their children in meaningful educational activities that reinforce classroom learning. Guidance and resources for parents can significantly enhance the impact of edtech tools on student learning.

7. Personalized Learning

Look for tools that leverage artificial intelligence to create personalized learning experiences that adapt to each child's unique needs and progress. AI-driven tools can provide real-time feedback, adjust the difficulty of activities based on performance and identify areas where a student may need additional support. These capabilities make learning more effective and engaging for young children. Research shows that personalized learning through AI can significantly enhance educational outcomes.

8. Insightful Assessments

Ongoing checks for understanding are a critical component of early childhood education, providing insights into student progress and areas needing improvement. Edtech tools streamline the formative assessment process, making it more efficient and less intrusive. Digital assessments offer immediate feedback, enabling teachers to quickly identify and address learning gaps. These tools also collect and analyze data over time, offering a comprehensive view of a student's development. Some platforms include built-in assessment features that help teachers track progress and tailor instruction accordingly. By enhancing teachers' ability to utilize data practices effectively, these tools support better-informed teaching strategies and improved student outcomes.

9. User-Friendly Data Tools

Select platforms that equip teachers with easy access to data and intuitive analysis tools. Effective data use is key to enhancing instruction and supporting student learning. Look for edtech solutions that offer training and professional development on data literacy, empowering teachers to integrate data-driven practices into their routines. Khan Academy Kids supports teachers with progress tracking and data visualization tools that simplify the analysis and application of student performance data. Embracing data-driven teaching can lead to more personalized and effective learning experiences for students.

By considering these features, early childhood educators can select digital tools that enhance learning and support the development of young learners in their classrooms. From interactive games to educational videos, the right tools can make a significant difference in engaging students and fostering a love of learning from an early age.

© Image Credit: Khan Academy Kids

Soon after Miriam Bravo began watching her 2-year-old grandson full-time, she realized that many years had passed since she was last responsible for a young child. Feeling a bit rusty, she turned to the internet to seek out activities suitable for little Tadeo and advice for how best to support him.

She found some resources online, such as songs to sing with him, but Bravo wanted more.

Bravo is part of a group of caregivers often referred to as family, friend and neighbor (FFN) providers. Although this is the most common non-parental child care arrangement in the United States, used by millions of families, few options for training and education are available to FFN providers. Most early care and education supports are reserved for licensed child care providers or parents. And the limited professional development opportunities available to FFNs are often inaccessible, due to factors such as costs, scheduling and language barriers.

So it was lucky that when Bravo knocked on the door of a community center near her home in San Jose, California, wondering whether they had any programs to help her improve as a caregiver, she found exactly what she was looking for.

In Bravo’s northern California community, a home visiting service called ParentChild+ has adapted its well-established model for parents to fit the needs and priorities of home-based child care providers, including FFNs.

For decades, evidence-based home visits from trained professionals have supported families across the U.S. These programs empower parents to engage their children with high-quality, developmentally appropriate activities; promote social-emotional skills and school readiness among kids; and foster a safe, healthy, nurturing home environment. More recently, a number of national home visiting programs have recognized an opportunity to reach more children by serving home-based child care providers, too, and there’s evidence to show it’s making a difference.

“This is promising,” says Natalie Renew, executive director of Home Grown, a national initiative to increase access to and quality of home-based child care, “especially in a landscape where there are so few other interventions.”

People want to do right by kids and many times don’t have the tools or knowledge of what the right thing is. Sometimes it’s just bringing in new opportunities.

— Kerry Caverly

In the last few years, Home Grown has provided grants to three home visiting programs that serve home-based providers — ParentChild+, Parents as Teachers and Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters — to help them better understand the needs of the caregivers they’re engaging, learn what factors contribute to the success of the programs and, ultimately, expand their footprint.

It’s an investment in an often-overlooked but invaluable caregiver population that, in most cases, was already looking for ways to provide higher quality care and education to children, explains Kerry Caverly, chief program office at Parents as Teachers.

“People want to do right by kids and many times don’t have the tools or knowledge of what the right thing is,” Caverly says. “Sometimes it’s just bringing in new opportunities.”

An Organic Expansion

Bravo signed on to the free, voluntary, home-based child care model with ParentChild+ right away. Since February, Stephanie, the home visitor assigned to Bravo, has been visiting her and Tadeo twice a week.

Stephanie brings books, toys and materials that Bravo keeps and can use during future learning activities with Tadeo. But her home visitor’s biggest contributions, Bravo shares in Spanish through an interpreter, are less tangible.

Tadeo lights up when Stephanie arrives, Bravo says. He’s eager to find out which activity she planned for him that day. His motor skills have improved, and now, at 2-and-a-half years old, he’s cutting with scissors — a task that many children have not yet mastered by kindergarten. He is able to focus and complete activities that his attention span did not allow even a few months ago.

Bravo, for her part, has gained confidence. She has become a more patient, loving caregiver, she says. “It’s brought us closer.” She sees herself now as more than Tadeo’s grandmother; she is his teacher as well.

Miriam Bravo with her 2-year-old grandson Tadeo. Through home visits from ParentChild+, Bravo says she has become a better caregiver to Tadeo. Photo courtesy of Bravo.

The ParentChild+ home-based child care model emerged organically, says Sarah Walzer, CEO of the organization, which started in 1965 as a home visiting program for parents and today serves a majority immigrant population that speaks over 40 languages.

A little over a decade ago, home visitors reported that a number of parents in their caseload were caring for other children in the community. Over the next few years, in response to that need, ParentChild+ built out a parallel model tailored to home-based child care providers, including FFNs. Today, the program has a presence in 10 states.

The program for home-based providers runs for 24 weeks, compared to 46 weeks for families. The visits are designed around hands-on learning activities and play, Walzer says, adding that the goal is to improve the quality of the child care and to build school readiness for children, with attention to the learning environment and adult-child interactions.

We don’t go in there to find what is missing, lacking or illegal. We go in to look at what is going really well and strengthen [it].

— Sarah Walzer

Their work is strengths-based, Walzer explains. Home visitors seek to identify what’s already working and build on it — that’s true of other home visiting models and of home visits targeted to parents.

“We don’t go in there to find what is missing, lacking or illegal,” Walzer says. “We go in to look at what is going really well and strengthen areas of child care” based on evidence-based practices.

Parents as Teachers has a similar origin story for its home-based child care model, which they call “Supporting Care Providers Through Person Visits” (SCPV).

It was the late 1990s, and more women were entering the workforce, recalls Caverly, the chief program officer. More families, as a result, were seeking out child care arrangements. Home visitors serving families across the country were sharing that they’d show up for home visits and find a relative or neighbor with the child instead of the parent.

“It really got us thinking,” Caverly remembers.

Parents as Teachers adapted its curricula and built out the SCPV program, which is currently being used in 12 states. (With funding from Home Grown, they are updating their curricula for home-based providers and will spend much of 2025 using those new resources to expand their reach.)

Both Parents as Teachers and ParentChild+ serve a mix of licensed home-based child care providers and unlicensed FFNs through their home visiting programs, but “at the heart of it is FFNs,” says Caverly, adding that their work with FFNs does look, in a lot of ways, like their work with families.

One of the key distinctions between their work with providers and families, she says, is that providers learn how to do screenings and evaluations of the children in their care.

That element was especially valuable for Gretchen Dunn, a licensed provider in Olathe, Kansas.

Dunn has owned her home-based child care program for 25 years, she says, but when she heard Parents as Teachers was offering home visits for providers, she called up her local site and asked to participate.

She’s a seasoned provider who attends annual training, she acknowledges, but she liked the idea of getting a “refresher” and the chance to observe another early childhood professional interact with the kids in her care.

Gretchen Dunn with four children in her program on Valentine's Day 2024. Dunn learned how to screen for developmental delays during home visits from Parents as Teachers. Photo courtesy of Dunn.

Over the course of two years, Dunn received monthly home visits, during which her home visitor would usually lead an activity with the kids and leave Dunn with a handout so she could repeat it in the future. The home visitor also brought books. And she helped Dunn screen children for possible developmental delays using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, something Dunn hadn’t used before in her program. Those evaluations can tell a provider if a child may need to see a specialist — a speech therapist, for example — but they can also help inform providers about appropriate activities and interactions to use with each child.

The entire experience was validating for Dunn, she says. As the sole employee of her program, she has minimal adult interaction during the day. Plus, there is rarely anyone to observe her work or note if she is doing a good job.

“To have someone who actually knows my field and training come in and give me new ideas and support and back me up — all those things, that’s what I enjoyed” the most, she says.

‘Money Well Spent’

Perhaps the biggest hangup of this model is money, according to Renew of Home Grown.

The sites that already exist to provide home visiting services — to both families and providers — say that with more funding, they could reach many more caregivers.

“We know we have a lot of children who will fall through the cracks,” says Maria Rios, a home visitor for Parents as Teachers in Kansas City, Kansas, who has a caseload of 30 home-based child care providers. “I wish there was more funding.”

Rios, a former preschool teacher and school vice principal, is less concerned about children’s academic skills. “They’ll learn their ABCs in school,” she says. It’s the social-emotional skills — how to interact with other children, how to share — that she feels many children need to pick up sooner.

Home visiting programs are expensive to implement, as most high intensity, high integrity services tend to be, says Renew. It’s a big shift, she adds, for states and localities to go from spending zero dollars on FFN providers to investing thousands of dollars in each person. But she thinks it’s feasible, especially given the number of children who stand to benefit.

A few different funding models are in play already. The state of Colorado has used its Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five dollars on home visiting. And ParentChild+ is getting public funding, including dollars from the federal pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act, to support its home-based child care programming at several sites, including New York state and counties in North Carolina.

“From our perspective,” says Renew, “it’s money well spent.”

It certainly has been for Bravo, the FFN provider in California. Both the mentorship from her home visitor and the new community she has found among other FFNs in her area have made for a “beautiful experience.”

“It’s not just a program,” Bravo adds, “it’s a family.”

Equipped with new caregiving expertise, she’s thought about taking in more children. She is open to the idea, she says. At a minimum, she’ll get to use her knowledge with future grandchildren.

© MIA Studio / Shutterstock

PUEBLO, Colorado — Standing in her living room, Isabel Valencia sets up her makeshift tennis serve with the materials on hand: a green balloon for a ball and a ruler affixed to a paper plate for a racket.

She bats the balloon to her home visitor, Mayra Ocampo, and they pass it back and forth, counting each return, offering encouragement and laughing at their mistakes.

The moment is light and playful, as it likely will be later in the week, when Valencia tries the same activity with her 4-year-old daughter Celeste. But Ocampo takes care to explain what’s happening beneath the surface: They’re not just playing tennis. They’re building social skills. They’re working on hand-eye coordination. And they’re practicing numeracy.

Home visitor Mayra Ocampo, left, and parent Isabel Valencia practice social and motor skills during a makeshift game of tennis. Photo by Eric Lars Bakke for AP.

Valencia, who came to the U.S. from Colombia a few years ago, found Ocampo through a free home visiting program that supports families with their children's early learning and development.

The model — and others like it — has provided a lifeline for families, especially those for whom access to quality early education is scarce or out of reach financially. These programs, which are set to expand with new federal support, are proven to help prepare children for school but have reached relatively few families.

It was during a trip to the grocery store in 2022 with her two young kids that somebody told Valencia about the home visiting program. She had moved to Pueblo, Colorado, only a few months earlier and was feeling isolated. She hadn’t met anyone else who spoke Spanish.

“I didn’t leave my house,” she says through an interpreter, “so I thought I was the only one.”

This story was published in collaboration with The Associated Press.

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program, known as HIPPY, provides families with a trained support person — in Valencia’s case, Ocampo — who visits their home every week, showing them how to engage their children with fun, high-quality, developmentally appropriate activities.

The HIPPY program is unique for its two-generation approach. Through regular home visits and monthly group meetings, parents learn how to promote early literacy and social-emotional skills from staff who went through the program themselves and often share the same language and background as the families they serve.

The program is primarily implemented in low-income neighborhoods, as well as through school districts and organizations reaching immigrant and refugee families, says Miriam Westheimer, chief program officer for HIPPY International, which operates in 15 countries and 20 U.S. states.

Many other home visiting models exist, each with distinct features. Some employ registered nurses as home visitors, focusing on maternal and child health; others send social workers or early childhood specialists. They can begin as early as pregnancy or, as in the case of HIPPY, serve families with toddlers and preschool-aged children.

In the U.S., two dozen home visiting models have received a stamp of approval — and with it, access to funding — from the federal government’s Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program.

Dr. Michael Warren, associate administrator of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the MIECHV program, has seen first-hand the way home visiting can strengthen families but says that, right now, its scope is too limited.

An estimated 17 million families nationwide stand to benefit from the type of voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services that Valencia receives. Yet in 2022, only about 270,000 did.

“That is purely because of resources,” notes Warren. “If more resources exist, more families can be served.”

Fortunately, he says, reinforcements are on the way.

The federal investment in the MIECHV program is set to double from $400 million to $800 million annually, by 2027. Beginning this year, the federal government will match $3 for every $1 in non-federal funds spent on home visiting programs, up to a certain amount. Since many states already have funding mechanisms in place — through a combination of public, nonprofit and private contributions — it is expected to be an easy win.

In interviews with more than 20 individuals who conduct, receive or research home visits, and in observation of two home visits in Colorado and Texas, the extent of this service’s impact on families and communities became clear.

Now in her second year of the HIPPY program, Valencia is a more confident parent. She says the structured curriculum she follows, paired with Ocampo’s support, have helped her prepare her daughter to thrive in preschool.

© Photo by Eric Lars Bakke for AP

About two years ago, I had a health crisis that not only jeopardized my well-being, but also threatened the continuity of care for the families I serve as the owner of a home-based child care program.

One day when I was cleaning up at the end of a work day, I began experiencing heart palpitations and difficulty breathing. After a number of medical visits, I was hospitalized and eventually diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFIB) — a condition which can lead to blood clots and a risk of stroke or a heart attack. My doctors put me on heart medicine as a first step, but things worsened. Since then, I’ve had a number of procedures including a surgery on my heart.

Left with no choice, I took a leave of absence to get treatment and recuperate. To keep the program running, I relied on my adult daughters, who chose to move back in with me and work alongside the part time teacher I employ.

As a longtime early childhood educator who has been nurturing young minds for four decades, I’m aware of the many challenges of the profession, from compensation to staffing to a lack of respect for the work. But this experience left me wondering — where is my safety net when I fall ill or seek retirement as an early childhood educator?

Desperate to keep my program open, even though I couldn’t work myself, I sought financial assistance. I received state disability benefits back in 2022, when my health crisis began, but it wasn’t renewed the subsequent year. The lack of support has left me feeling frustrated and embarrassed, especially considering my long-standing service to the community.

Sadly, my experience is not uncommon. According to a survey administered to more than 350 early childhood educators by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) — a nonprofit that supports home-based early learning programs like mine — only 16 percent of respondents reported that their income allowed them to afford essential benefits like retirement and health insurance.

While some states are taking steps to address various elements of the child care crisis, the reality remains: We are undervalued and overlooked. With the average child care worker earning just $32,070 annually, fair compensation, benefits and federal support are imperative. It's time to recognize the vital role we play and provide us with the support we deserve.

The absence of adequate support for the early childhood workforce resonates throughout the entire child care system, impacting early educators, children and families. When experienced professionals like myself are forced to step away due to health concerns or lack of financial stability, it disrupts the consistency and quality of care for the children we serve. Families are left scrambling to find alternative arrangements, and the relationships we’ve built with them are jeopardized.

Moreover, the challenges faced by early educators extend beyond financial strains. For me, the emotional toll of navigating a health crisis without a safety net was overwhelming. I entered this profession out of a genuine passion for supporting our littlest learners, but the constant stress and uncertainty of knowing whether I’d be able to keep the doors open took a toll on my well-being. I deserve better. We all do.

Addressing these systemic issues requires a multifaceted approach. First, there must be increased investment in the child care sector to ensure that early educators are compensated fairly for the invaluable work we do. This includes not only raising wages, but also providing comprehensive benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans. Additionally, there needs to be greater awareness and advocacy surrounding the unique challenges faced by those of us in the profession, with a focus on implementing policies that prioritize the well-being of child care providers and the children in their care.

As for me, I’m still recovering and have a number of physical limitations, but thankfully, I’ve been able to keep my program running and have taken a more active role in advocating for early childhood educators. I have sat on advisory boards to communicate the needs of family child care providers, shared my voice as a panelist on these issues and reached out to my mayor and local council to get involved. I am learning more about child care policies and how I, as a family child care educator, can make change.

I’ve spent my entire career supporting children and their families, first as an early educator and then as the owner of my own early learning program. Next year will mark 20 years since I started working for myself, and it was one of the best decisions I have made. It hasn’t been easy; however, I am extremely proud of the program I have created. It is one where children are safe and loved, and where parents have peace of mind while they’re away from their babies. I will continue to raise my voice and advocate for all early educators. It's time for us to be recognized, supported and valued as essential contributors to society.

© Illustration Forest / Shutterstock

This was originally published by Early Learning Nation.

A program that began in Kentucky as a novel idea to rebuild the early childhood workforce — and, in effect, buoy the broader labor market — has quickly spread to states across the country.

To draw early educators back into classrooms, legislators in the Bluegrass State made a change in fall 2022 that expanded the eligibility requirements of Kentucky’s child care subsidy program to include all staff who work at least 20 hours per week in a licensed early care and education program. In effect, early childhood educators became automatically eligible for free child care for their own kids, regardless of household income.

It was an instant boon. In its first year, 3,200 Kentucky parents working in early care and education participated in the program, with some 5,600 children benefitting.

Early childhood advocates, policymakers and business leaders in other states took notice. A creative solution with immediate impacts? They wanted in.

“It blew up,” says Lauren Hogan, managing director of policy and professional advancement at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nonprofit membership organization that advocates for high-quality early learning. “There’s a reason it’s gotten steam. It’s proven valuable.”

A year-and-a-half into Kentucky’s experiment, more than a dozen states have either launched their own programs or are seriously considering it, including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Rhode Island.

If all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., adopted a policy like Kentucky’s, more than 234,000 staff in early care and education settings with children under age 6 could benefit, according to an estimate from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

The premise of the initiative is simple: Better-staffed early care and education programs will increase the supply of child care, allowing more parents to re-enter the workforce. But the field has struggled to retain and attract staff.

Over the last few years, amid the pandemic and rising inflation, many early educators left the field because they found they could make more money elsewhere. Everyone from Amazon to Target to Chick-fil-A was offering higher wages. Child care providers, already operating on the tiniest of margins and charging families more than they can reasonably afford, simply couldn’t compete.

The result was understaffed early care and education programs, leading to closed classrooms and more families without access to care.

Kentucky’s approach works because it gives early care and education providers a tool to retain the staff they have and sweeten the deal for prospective educators.

“If you can’t directly increase the money in folks’ pockets, you can at least reduce their costs,” explains Hogan. “A lot of them have child care costs.”

Some of our educators can’t even pay for their own children to go to the program where they work, and that just doesn’t make sense.

— Lisa Hildebrand

Beyond how attractive it is for the economy, the program is also snuffing out a bitter irony that has long persisted in the field: Those who provide child care can seldom afford it themselves.

“Some of our educators can’t even pay for their own children to go to the program where they work, and that just doesn’t make sense,” says Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children. “Now, there is a way for them to be able to afford that.”

Rhode Island is eight months into a year-long, $4 million pilot of a program modeled on Kentucky’s — one that Hildebrand hopes will be renewed in the state legislature come June.

There is certainly evidence to support its continuation, she shares.

As of March, 475 children were participating in the pilot program. Their parents work across 162 different center- and home-based early education programs throughout Rhode Island.

Of those participating, 23 percent were already eligible for the state’s existing income-based Child Care Assistance Program. But more than three-fourths have had child care expenses waived through the pilot. (Rhode Island’s program differs from Kentucky’s in that it does have an income cap, just one that is notably higher than that available to other families in the state.)

Providers have shared that they’ve been able to bring back former classroom teachers and attract new ones to their programs, which is a huge relief to the sector, Hildebrand says.

“Staffing right now is at such a critical level [for some providers] that if they lose one teacher it means closing a classroom with a large number of children,” she explains. “We [already] have long wait lists, families waiting years for a slot. That’s less people in the workforce.”

In a survey conducted by the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, which administers the program, one provider called the pilot “life changing” for staff with young children. Others mentioned an influx of job applicants and new hires who are experienced and excited to work in the field — neither of which is a given in the underpaid profession.

Another provider said, “This has been an amazing experience. We were able to attract a top-notch toddler teacher who had chosen to stay home because the cost of child care was too high in comparison to her income.”

“Categorical eligibility” for child care workers is a rare policy solution that “can be embraced by red states and blue states,” notes Hogan.

We cannot solve our workforce crisis without solving our child care crisis.

— Katie Bass

In Nebraska, a bipartisan group of legislators has been pushing for a bill with expanded eligibility for early care and education staff this legislative session.

“We are in a workforce crisis in Nebraska, and we’re in a child care crisis,” says Katie Bass, data and policy research advisor at First Five Nebraska, a bipartisan public policy organization focused on expanding opportunities in the early years. “We cannot solve our workforce crisis without solving our child care crisis.”

The Nebraska bill ultimately did not pass before the end of the session in mid-April — there just wasn’t enough money this time, Bass explains, but says “it’s certainly not stopping here.”

Representatives from conservative and liberal groups alike testified in favor of the program. The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. John Fredrickson, intends to reintroduce the legislation in the next session, which begins in January 2025, Bass says. In the meantime, he has introduced an interim study to evaluate the different approaches other states are taking and determine the version that will best suit early educators in Nebraska.

“It’s kind of unprecedented,” Bass says of the bill’s wide base of supporters. “The lack of child care is affecting every single sector’s ability to operate.”

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