A stronger, more effective early care and education (ECE) workforce is essential for supporting children’s development. Yet the nation’s ECE workforce faces many challenges, including inadequate compensation that varies widely by jurisdiction, high staff turnover, and disparities in training and resources across the ECE sector. To address these challenges, states are working to implement new policies and establish new requirements to better support their ECE workforces. For instance, some states have increased the minimum wage or established salary parity policies for pre-kindergarten and K-3 teachers. Other states have set minimum qualification requirements for their child care or pre-kindergarten lead teachers.
This project aims to improve the ECE field’s understanding of the various policies and funding decisions that states are implementing to support their ECE workforces, and how these system-level changes impact ECE staff and the children they serve.
Authors: Year of Publication:2022
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