States are still a patchwork of quality and affordability
There are multiple factors impacting the pool of early childhood education staff, including program closures due to Covid-19, low wages, and the fact that child care jobs are disproportionately staffed by lower-income women with young children. The attached article fails to fully explore the elephant in the room, where programs that struggle to balance maintaining affordable rates for families and sustaining a business that can afford to recruit and retain staff. This story plays out to various degrees across the country, with states like New Mexico taking the lead in voting in 2022 to fund statewide subsidies for free child care.
While New Mexico will hopefully be a model for child care equity, most states continue to relegate child care to the private sector with subsidies available to low-income families. This creates a scarcity model, where families compete for limited subsided spots, and providers struggle to maintain their businesses with sub-market rates. It’s not a sustainable system and everyone from the providers to the families to the children ends up losing out. The impact is felt by providers who struggle to pay valuable staff living wages and maintain facilities and equipment with numerous regulations.
Despite those systemic issues, the quality of programs is regulated in almost every state. In Washington State, all Licensed center-based and family home child care programs are highly regulated for quality and safety. Licensed programs are required to include early learning using a written curriculum aligned with the Washington State Early Learning and Development Guidelines. While there are child care deserts, and barriers due to affordability are a nationwide issue, families do not have to choose between child care -OR- early learning.
In Washington State, in addition to meeting the licensing standards for staff training, environment, safety, and health; licensed programs participate in a quality rating and improvement process called Early Achievers. This quality rating data is tracked by the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF), and advocacy organizations such as Child Care Aware. Families can access information about their local childcare programs using Child Care Check
Families who need help paying for Child Care in Washington State should check HERE
Child Care Resources
Child Care Aware has chapters in all 50 states and provides free child care information, referrals, and resources to families in multiple languages. They also partner with local Community Action organizations to ensure every community has child care resources and services that best meet their needs.
Click HERE to find your state and get child care information, referrals, and resources.
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