Child Care and Early Education Workforce
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The Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) members operate nearly 8,000 licensed child care centers, making ECEC the voice for tens of thousands of child care teachers and directors. These practitioners are among the experts in early care and learning, and they make an enormous difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of children every day.
Research indicates a direct relation between the early childhood-specific training of the caregiver and the quality of care. However, resources to support and programs to provide training and education in the early childhood field are limited.
With more than 2.3 million individuals working in child care and early education across the country, from family child care providers to classroom aides and teachers, issues affecting the workforce are many and often complex.
There is a crisis in the early childhood workforce and it is time for a national dialogue to address appropriate qualifications, pathways to advancement, and recruitment and retention of teachers.
ECEC Resources
Resources and Reports
Background
ECEC Resources
The Child Care Workforce
ECEC Policy Brief
Resources and Reports
Professional Development for the Infant/Toddler Ealry Care and Education Workforce.
Child Care Bureau, August 2010.
Role, Relevance, and Reinvention: Higher Education in the Field of Early Care and Education
Valora Washington, September 2008
This report recognizes that while efforts are growing to mandate bachelor's degrees for teachers and administrators of pre-kindergarten children, schools, colleges, and departments of education are finding that they do not have the capacity to meet growing community needs as many are understaffed and under resourced at all levels.
Congress Passes the Long-Awaited Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act
The final bill includes provisions for loan forgiveness for early childhood educators and grants to states for professional development. Click here for more.
Conference Call Series: A Center Piece of the PreK Puzzle
Transcript and recording
ECEC is partnering with National Women’s Law Center to produce a series of national audio conferences. The second in the series of calls focused on workforce issues child care centers face in operating state preKindergarten programs and featured ECEC Board President Sara Moleski-Rice from the Learning Care Group.
ECEC Presentation at Smart Start
"Perspectives on Meeting the Early Childhood Workforce Challenge," National Smart Start Conference. May 8, 2009.
NAEYC’s Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative
Includes an overview, state policy blueprint, database of state policies, and workforce policy seminars. Click here for more.
Background
T.E.A.C.H. ® Early Childhood Project
Child Care Services Association
Fact Sheet on the Child Care Workforce
National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies
Roots of Decline: How Government Policy Has De-Educated Teachers of Young Children
Dan Bellm and Marcy Whitebook (2006)
Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
University of California at Berkeley
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