A Study of Early Care and
Education in Vermont
PREPARED BY Colleen F. Manning, M.A. Margaret Vaughan, Ph.D. Lorraine Deane, M.Ph. Irene F. Goodman, Ed.D.
SUBMITTED TO A. D. Henderson Foundation Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children Vermont Community Foundation Turrell Fund Plus two anonymous funders
March 2009
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Christine Zachai, Executive Director of the Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children and Eddie Gale, Program Director at the A. D. Henderson Foundation, provided valuable contacts and resources for securing important information contained in this report and provided reviews on several earlier drafts of the report.
Cindy Char, of Char Associates, served as senior advisor to the study, providing input on study design and management, protocol development, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Dr. Char also conducted some of the key stakeholder interviews.
Laura Houseman, Research Assistant at GRG, provided support during all phases of the study.
GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary...... i
Introduction...... 1
Methods ...... 2 Early Care and Education Stakeholder Interviews...... 2 Review of Research...... 2 Vermont Geographic Areas...... 4
Early Care and Education Demand and Supply...... 5 Early Care and Education Demand ...... 5 Child Population ...... 6 Family Composition and Work Status ...... 7 Care Utilization and Preferences...... 9 Early Care and Education Supply...... 9 Types of Early Care and Education Programs ...... 9 Early Care and Education Capacity ...... 13 Paying for Child Care...... 15 Early Care and Education Rates...... 15 Child Care Costs and Family Income ...... 16 Families with Low Incomes and Child Care Subsidies...... 18
Early Childhood Spending in Vermont...... 20
Early Childhood Programs in Vermont ...... 23 Universal Early Childhood Programs...... 23 Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention ...... 23 Vermont Children’s Trust Fund...... 24 Parent Child Centers ...... 25 Resource and Referral...... 26 Success by Six...... 27 Targeted Early Childhood Programs...... 28 Accommodation Grants ...... 28 Children’s Integrated Services ...... 28 The Vermont Department for Children and Families Child Care Subsidy...... 29 Head Start/Early Head Start...... 29 The Early Education Initiative Program (EEI)...... 29 Essential Early Education (EEE) ...... 30 Even Start...... 30 Quality Enhancement Grants for Infant & Toddler Child Care ...... 30 Supported Child Care Grants ...... 31 WIC...... 31
Vermont Infant and Toddler Initiatives ...... 31 Children’s Integrated Services ...... 31 Early Learning Standards ...... 31 Child Care Subsidy Reserved Space Agreement...... 32
GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Vermont Publicly Funded Prekindergarten ...... 33
The Quality of Early Care and Education in Vermont...... 34 The Structural Quality of Care in Vermont...... 35 The Process Quality of Care in Vermont ...... 36 Program Accreditation ...... 36 Step Ahead Recognition System (STARS)...... 37
ECE Professional Development in Vermont ...... 39 ECE Workforce...... 39 Number of ECE Providers ...... 40 Salary and Benefits ...... 40 Child Care Provider and Center Budgets ...... 42 Educational Requirements and Attainment...... 42 ECE Professional Development System ...... 44 Core Competencies ...... 45 Professional Development Planning ...... 46 Career Ladder...... 47 Retrieved from http://northernlights.vsc.edu/career_ladder.html...... 47 Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs...... 48 Bennington College...... 49 Champlain College...... 49 Community College of Vermont (CCV)...... 49 Goddard College ...... 49 Lyndon State College...... 50 Union Institute and University...... 50 University of Vermont (UVM) ...... 50 Professional Development Credentials and Related Programs ...... 51 Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Educator and Early Childhood Education Licenses...... 51 Child Development Associate Credential (CDA) ...... 52 The Vermont Early Childhood and Afterschool Program Director Credential...... 53 Child Care Certificate ...... 54 The Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program...... 54 The Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (VACCRRA)...... 55 Professional Development Activities ...... 57 BUILDNG BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® ...... 58 Mother Goose Programs ...... 58 Never Too Early...... 62 Start with the Arts ...... 65 Foundations for Early Learning ...... 66 Barriers to Participation in Professional Development ...... 67
Priority Roles of Investment by Charitable Foundations in ECE...... 69 Profile of the Funders and Considerations for the Collaboration...... 69 Strategic Objectives and Recommendations ...... 70
Appendices ...... 79
GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An informal affiliation of charitable foundations in Vermont, led by the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Permanent Fund for the Well-being of Vermont’s Children, commissioned a first-of-its-kind study of early care and education in Vermont. Through stakeholder interviews, literature review, and secondary data analysis, the study provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on the most important aspects of Vermont’s early care and education landscape, including supply and demand, early childhood spending, universal and targeted approaches to healthy child development, quality in early care and education, and education and professional development of providers.
The study identifies strengths and gaps in Vermont’s early care and education services. Based on these, we suggest strategic objectives and related recommendations for interested charitable foundations.
KEY STRENGTHS
Both its overall approach to early care and education as well as its tailored initiatives embody Vermont’s strong commitment to its youngest children. This is evident in Vermont’s favorable national comparisons in several areas.
! Vermont’s overall approach to ensuring healthy child development through a combination of universal and targeted programs corresponds to the latest science and policy research.
! Vermont has several statewide initiatives for infants and toddlers that address important elements of early care and education, including health and safety, parent and family involvement, social and emotional health, early learning guidelines, quality improvement, and governance.
! Vermont has several, well-established standards- and evidence-based professional development programs that have served a large target population.
! Vermont is a leader in the nation when it comes to enrollment in state education-funded pre-kindergarten, with enrollment double the national average.
! Vermont is highly ranked in terms of its child care center standards, although increasing the educational requirements for center directors seems warranted.
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KEY GAPS
While Vermont ranks high nationally on indicators of quality child care, there is room for improvement.
! There is high demand for child care in Vermont, higher than the national average and the highest in New England, with seven in ten children living with working parents, and demand exceeds supply.
! Childcare costs take up a significant portion of Vermont families’ household budgets, at a rate higher than the national average. The child care subsidy program is limited in its reach to needy families, and families receiving subsidies still lack adequate access to care.
! While Vermont is one of a relatively small number of states with a state quality rating system, most of the state’s child care programs remain unaccredited.
! The child care programs-to-licensing staff ratio far exceeds the national recommendation, resulting in a low national rank in terms of child care center oversight.
! While the state’s early childhood degree programs feature many “best practices” for rural students (e.g., opportunities for local independent study, online courses), there are a very limited number of students graduating from the programs. State-sponsored professional development efforts geared toward licensure and apprenticeships, while promising, also reach relatively small numbers of early childhood educators.
! Finally, there are significant deficiencies in Vermont’s early care and education data. In particular, there is little known about the age distribution of children cared for in registered family child care homes, family, friend, and neighbor care in the state
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
! Objective #1: Increase the Supply of High-Quality Infant and Toddler Child Care
" Recommendation: Increase the Number of Licensed Infant/Toddler Child Care Slots through Recruitment/Training Grants A grant program could allow resource and referral agencies (in areas where demand most outstrips supply) to recruit and train family child care providers to help meet the demand for child care, in particular infant and toddler care.
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" Recommendation: Improve the Quality of Existing Infant/Toddler Care through FFN-Child Care Center Relationships A FFN provider survey would yield valuable information on FFN provider backgrounds in early childhood education, their expressed needs regarding the care they provide, and their feedback about strategies to reach out to and support them. Quality improvements targeted to FFN care, such as partnerships with child care centers, could follow.
! Objective #2: Increase the College Credentials of the Early Care and Education Workforce
" Recommendation: Increase College Credentials through a Higher Education Scholarship Program One attractive strategy is to provide scholarships to regulated providers, requiring a one-year commitment to child care after the scholarship year.
! Objective #3: Increase Child Care Providers’ Access to Professional Development Activities
" Recommendation: Advocate, investigate, and support efforts to utilize technology in professional development in order to increase outreach and access to training. Build on the best practices of teacher preparation programs, including hosting professional development opportunities in remote regions and utilizing online professional development activities. " Recommendation: Fund advanced training of promising programs. Invest in advanced training for the state’s well-established Never Too Early program.
! Objective #4: Support the Social/Emotional Skills Professional Development of Child Care Providers
" Recommendation: Increase the Pace and Reach of the State’s Foundations of Early Learning Institutes. Investigate enhancing the FEL initiative so that it reaches more than one region and 60 providers annually.
For all of these recommendations, we urge the funders group to consider evaluation so as to add to the knowledge base about what works.
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INTRODUCTION
An informal affiliation of several charitable foundations in Vermont with a common interest in funding programs and initiatives that support the well-being of children have been thinking strategically and collaboratively about their investments. One step in their information gathering was to commission this comprehensive study of early care and education for Vermont children ages birth through four.
A 2002 detailed assessment of Vermont’s early childhood services reached the following conclusion:
“Vermont's early childhood system might be best described as many diverse patches, or pieces, ready to be linked and sewn together... Numerous programs and organizations are committed and working diligently at both the state and community level but there is often overlap, particularly at the community level, and fragmentation as to which organization is doing what.” (Building Bright Futures: The Vermont Alliance for Children Early Childhood System Plan)
Since 2002, there have been some key efforts to piece together Vermont’s early care and education patches. In displaying what we know and do not know about early care and education issues in the state, in the context of relevant national data, this report aims to promote synergistic thinking about Vermont’s system.
After presenting study methods, the report is organized into seven sections, highlighting the data for major early care and education issues, including supply and demand, spending, universal and targeted ECE programs, quality, infant and toddler initiatives, and professional development.
The report culminates in priority roles of investment by charitable foundations in early care and education in Vermont. These strategic areas are informed by the data reported herein as well as by the vision and ideas, common interests and shared concerns of the funders group.
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METHODS
Our general approach to the study included early care and education stakeholder interviews and review of relevant research.
EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
GRG conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 key stakeholders (see Table 1), including state officials, advocacy group leaders, childcare facility directors, funders and researchers, in order to profile the infrastructure, functionality, and specific concerns about early care and education in Vermont.
REVIEW OF RESEARCH
GRG conducted a review of the extant quantitative and qualitative research on early care and education in Vermont using the current and most recent survey results from policy papers, legislative action, and available federal and state data to profile the demand, supply, and the quality of early childcare facilities, centers, family providers and education. We included data regarding families considered most in need. We obtained the most high quality information available regarding the current indicators in Vermont and in the nation as a whole. Our analysis explored what is distinct about Vermont that needs to be considered and what are the best practices in other parts of the U.S. that are of relevance to the situation in Vermont.
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Table 1 Key Informant Interviews Name Title Organization Sally Anderson Executive Director Mother Goose Programs Laura Brines ECE Consultant and Educator Never Too Early Trainer Hope Campbell Director, Child Care Lending Vermont Community Loan Fund Sadie Fischesser Director Windham Child Care Association Manuela Fonseca Early Childhood Education VT Department of Program Specialist Education Becky Gonyea Executive Director Building Bright Futures Karen Hewitt Founder and President Learning Materials Workshop Kim Keiser Deputy Commissioner VT Department for Children and Families Betty Kinsman Executive Director Springfield Area Parent Child Center Jody Marquise Director Creative Minds Children's Center Inc., Newport Elizabeth Meyer Executive Director Child Care Resource Mary Powell Co-Chair/Business Building Bright Futures Representative Council Peggy Rainville Program Coordinator Very Special Arts, Vermont Start with the Arts Jack Russell ECE Consultant VAEYC Board Barbara Saunders Co-director Mary Johnson Children’s Center, Middlebury Jan Steinbauer Director of Literacy Programs Vermont Humanities Council Mark Sustic Consultant Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative Nancy Sugarman Executive Director Northern Lights Career Development Center Lisa Ventriss President/Executive Director Vermont Business Roundtable Jan Walker Unit Director, Workforce VT Department for Development and Quality Children and Families Enhancement K.C. Whitely Director, Head Start VT Head Start Collaborative Association
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VERMONT GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
Some of the data in this report are disaggregated by one of three geographic classifications. Some data are presented by county; there are 14 counties in Vermont. Other data are divided by and presented for either the 12 VACCRRA regions or the 12 Agency of Human Services (AHS) districts. Figure 1 displays the counties, while Table 2 shows the rough correspondence among these three classification systems.
Figure 1 Table 2 Vermont County Map Vermont Counties, VACCRRA Regions, and AHS Districts
VACCRRA County AHS District Region Addison Addison Middlebury Bennington Bennington Bennington Caledonia/Essex Caledonia St. Johnsbury (South) Chittenden Chittenden Burlington Essex (See Caledonia and Orleans) Franklin Franklin and St. Albans Grand Isle Grand Isle Lamoille Lamoille Morrisville Orange (See Windsor) Orleans/Essex Orleans Newport (North) Rutland Rutland Rutland Washington Washington Barre Windham Windham (South) Brattleboro Orange/Windsor Hartford (North) Windsor Windsor (South)/Windham Springfield (North)
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EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION DEMAND AND SUPPLY
Information on the supply and demand of early care and education programs in Vermont is critical to understanding and supporting the early care and education infrastructure. This information can serve as a planning tool for early care and education stakeholders, including philanthropists and charitable foundations, to Supply and demand help ensure that quality early care and education programs are available for information is critical to Vermont’s children. supporting an early care and education To our knowledge, Vermont has not been through a formal data gathering and infrastructure; however, analysis process to understand child care demand and supply since 1985. At that Vermont has not time, the Child Care Task Force of the Governor’s Commission on the Status of gathered and analyzed Women undertook census research and heard testimony from parents, child care providers, employers, professionals in the early childhood field, and government these data in over 20 representatives to assess demand and supply. At the county level, the Windham years. Regional Commission conducted a child care assessment in 2002 to guide child care development in Windham County (The Windham Regional Commission for The Children First Partnership, 2002).
EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION DEMAND
In the absence of early care and education needs assessment data for Vermont, we have estimated the demand for such care. In the next section of the report, we compare our demand estimate to information we gathered about the early care and education that is currently available (i.e., the supply).
Demand for child care is defined by:
• parents’ needs or desires for care (of a certain type) as well as • their ability to afford that care.
In order to estimate the need for care, we consider:
• the number of children in Vermont and • the marital status or family composition of the households in which these children live and the work status of families with children.
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Child Population
We begin by considering the number of children birth to five living in Vermont. We present separate estimates for children under 3 years, 3 and 4 years, and 5 years because age is a factor in parents’ child care choices and because child care programs in Vermont vary by age of children. As Figure 2 shows, there are an estimated 37,835 children birth to five in Vermont and nearly half of them are infants and toddlers.
Figure 2: Vermont's Birth to Five Population by Age
5 yrs., 5,960, 16%
Under 3 yrs., 17,708, 47%
3 and 4 yrs., 14,167, 37%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey, 3-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, B09001. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov Note: Includes children in households. The number of children birth to five years in group quarters1 is unknown.
1 According to the US Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/cac/www/pdf/acs- group-quarters.pdf), “Group Quarters (GQs) are a place where people live or stay that is normally owned or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or services for the residents. These services may include custodial or medical care as well as other types of assistance, and residency is commonly restricted to those receiving these services. People living in GQs are usually not related to each other. GQs include such places as college residence halls, residential treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities, group homes, military barracks, correctional facilities, workers’ dormitories, and facilities for people experiencing homelessness.” 6 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Table 3 shows the break down of Vermont’s birth to five population by county. The highest numbers of the children are in Chittenden county, the most populous county in the state. The state’s largest for-profit employer, IBM, is located in the The largest village of Essex Junction in Chittenden county. percentage of Table 3 Vermont’s Vermont’s Birth to Five Population, by County children birth to County # of children 0-5 five are in Chittenden 9,738 Chittenden county. Washington 3,730 Rutland 3,656 Franklin 3,607 Windsor 3,210 Windham 2,537 Addison 2,197 Bennington 2,142 Caledonia 2,078 Orange 1,833 Orleans 1,622 Lamoille 1,485 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey, 3-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, B09001. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov NOTE: Data are not available for Essex and Grand Isle counties.
Family Composition and Work Status
Next, we turn to family composition and work status, which are factors in the use of child care. Seven in ten (71%, n= 26,721) of Vermont’s children birth to five live with working parents – either in two-parent families with both parents in the labor force or living with one parent who is in the labor force. This percentage is used as an estimate of the need for child care. Vermont leads the New
England states in its Vermont’s rate is 10% higher than the national average and is higher than the need for child care, with rates of other New England states, as illustrated in Figure 3. Appendix A 71% of its birth to five provides the source data for this Figure. population living with parents in the labor About eight in ten children in Orange, Lamoille, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor live with working parents, compared to seven in ten children in force. Franklin, Washington, Chittenden, and Addison, and six in ten children in Orleans, Caledonia, and Bennington. See Figure 4 (and Appendix B for more detail).
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Figure 3: Need for Child Care in Vermont Compared to New England States and U.S.
80% 71% 70% 67% 63% 63% 63% 62% 61% 60%
50% 40%
30%
20%
10%
Estimated % of children 0-5 in need of care of need in 0-5 children % of Estimated 0% VT RI MA NH ME CT US
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, C23008. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov
Figure 4: Need for Child Care in Vermont, by County
90% 80% 77% 77% 76% 76% 80% 74% 74% 69% 68% 70% 63% 59% 58% 60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
le l n on oi so ange leans gt r utland indsor tenden O Lam R Franklin t Or Windham W Addi aledonia Chi C Washington Bennin
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, C23008. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov NOTE: Data are not available for Essex and Grand Isle counties.
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Care Utilization and Preferences
An important element of understanding child care demand is understanding the type of care families need. This would include information on the type of care currently used by parents and types of care parents prefer, by age of child and Understanding the marital and work status of families. demand for child care These key data are not available in Vermont. Neither the AHS Child requires understanding Development Division nor Vermont’s Child Care Resource and Referral the type of care needed, Agencies have information about child care utilization (i.e., child care program yet child care utilization enrollment, vacancies, and waiting lists) and parents have not been surveyed is not tracked in about their child care use or preferences. Vermont, and parents have not been surveyed about their child care EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION SUPPLY preferences. Child care supply is defined as the number of child care slots available to families, including slots in licensed and registered program and Head Start programs. As mentioned previously, there is no information available on child care vacancies or waiting lists in Vermont. This makes it difficult to ascertain where there might be a surplus or a shortage of care.
Types of Early Care and Education Programs
Before examining early care and education capacity in Vermont, we provide definitions of the key types of programs available to families in Vermont’s mixed delivery system (The Vermont Legislature, 2005):
School-age and Early Childhood Programs: This includes part-day and full-day programs, after-school programs, and preschools. Programs operate under a not-for-profit, independent, franchise, or faith-based organization and may be public (e.g., Head Start), private (e.g., KinderCare), or corporate-sponsored. Most center-based programs must be licensed to care for a larger number of children. This means the center must meet Vermont’s regulations for quality and safety for licensed child care. School-age and early childhood programs include Head Start and Early Head Start; descriptions of these programs are presented in the Early Childhood Programs in Vermont section of this report.
Registered Family Child Care Homes: Vermont regulates two types of family child care homes. A registered family child care home can care for up to six children under the age of six on a full-time basis (including up to two children under the age of two) and four school age children (for no more than four hours/day), in addition to their own children.
Licensed Family Child Care Homes: A licensed family child care home usually cares for 12 children and has two child care providers, but their licensed capacity is dependent upon their square footage of 9 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
space. These types of family child care homes are licensed as centers and must conform to state licensing guidelines (including higher standards of health and safety than those required of registered homes).
Non-reoccurring Child Care: Child Care services provided specifically to meet the short-term needs of families arising from tourism, recreation, or shopping.
Legally Exempt Child Care: A legally exempt child care provider is a person providing care for children of not more than two families that are eligible for child care subsidy. The provider must pass a criminal record check and meet minimal Vermont health and safety standards.
Unregulated Child Care: A person providing care for children of not more than two families is exempt from licensure in the state of Vermont. Also most summer camps and recreation activities are exempt from licensure. The State of Vermont doesn’t regulate any nanny/Au Pair services. This type of care encompasses family, friend, and neighbor child care.
Family, Friend, and Neighbor Child Care Family, friend, and neighbor child care (FFN) (also referred to as informal care, home-based care, kith and kin care, relative care, unregulated care, legally unlicensed, and We estimate that nearly license-exempt care) is care provided by relatives, friends, 4,000 Vermont children neighbors, or babysitters/nannies in either their own home or ages birth to five are in the child’s home. We provide a fuller explanation of this unregulated care. type of care, about which the group that commissioned this study is interested and about which there is relatively little known.
The Child Care Division does not have data on FFN care in Vermont, either the number of caregivers providing unregulated care or the number of families/children using such care. However, the prevalence of such care in Vermont has been estimated at 10,000 children under age 12 (Windham Child Care Association and Peace & Justice Center, 2002). Our own estimate is that nearly 4,000 of Vermont’s youngest children (birth to five) are in unregulated care.
Research on FFN care is still in early phases, but a report released in August 2008 concludes that it is the most common form of care in the U.S. An estimated 33-53% of children under five in child care are in FFN care, and it is an even more popular arrangement for infants and toddlers (Susman-Stillman and Banghart, 2008). Families with low incomes may use FFN care more than other types of care 10 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
because of its affordability and accessibility to those who work nontraditional hours, however, the literature is inconclusive on this point. FFN caregivers are most commonly relatives and most often grandmothers (Susman- Stillman and Banghart, 2008).
Commenting on the quality of FFN care proves tricky. Reports from parents are influenced by their priorities. Families who use regulated child care prioritize professional standards, while families who use FFN care want familiar providers they can trust and who most closely resemble their own parental care.
Relying on the results of studies with more formal measures also proves problematic because the measures were designed to be used in child care centers (i.e., the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, ECERS) or family child care homes (i.e., Family Day Care Rating Scale, FDCRS). Research using these measures generally shows FFN care to be of lower quality than regulated care (Brown-Lyons et al., 2001).
Because of the prevalence and perceived low quality of FFN care, a range of national and State efforts have been made to improve it. National initiatives include the following:
• Early Head Start Enhanced Home Visiting Pilot Project: The program objective is to develop and implement strategies for quality enhancement of infant and toddler child care provided by Early Head Start FFN care. The project began in 2004 with 23 EHS programs and is funded by the Head Start Bureau. The pilot is being evaluated. www.mathematica-mpr.com/earlycare/homevisiting.asp.
• National Alliance for Family, Friend, and Neighbor Child Care: This workgroup was started by the Institute for a Child Care Continuum, Bank Street College of Education to increase awareness of FFN care and increase providers' access to services. www.bnkst.edu/naffncc/
• Sparking Connections, Families and Work Institute: FWI is meant to demonstrate and evaluate strategies to support FFN caregivers through partnerships with retailers and other nontraditional partners. It is a 4-year national initiative. www.familiesandwork.org/sparking/home.htm.
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State initiatives are most commonly undertaken by child care resource and referral agencies. Strategies include outreach, support, and training programs, home visits, technical assistance to begin a child care business and become licensed, booklets, and grant programs to help FFN providers pay for training and quality enhancement items. Initiatives demonstrate cultural competence by gearing efforts toward characteristics of their FFN caregivers, for instance the Tūtū and Me program recognizes that grandparents are the primary caregivers for many Hawaiian children and the Taking Care of Children: Resource Guide for Informal Child Care Providers by the CCR&R agency in Seattle/King County, Washington is available in Amharic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese in acknowledgement of the diversity of languages spoken in that county.
Depending on the initiative, states have sometimes first conducted a census of FFN providers. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) conducted several studies to better understand FFN care, including but not limited to a statewide household child care survey, a survey of caregivers and parents about the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program, and observational studies of FFN care.
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Early Care and Education Capacity
Vermont currently has capacity to care for an estimated 22,729 children – infants, toddlers, and preschool children. See Table 4. Considering our previous demand estimate of 26,721, this leaves nearly 4,000 unaccounted for children, children we presume are in unregulated care.
Table 4 Early Care and Education Capacity in Vermont Infant Toddler Preschool Total Capacity Capacity Capacity Capacity Early childhood programsa 2,189 2,465 7,759 12,413 Head Start N/A N/A 1,512 1,512 Licensed family child care homes 50 67 68 185 Non-reoccurring child care 171 212 422 805 Total 2,410 2,744 9,761 14,915 Registered family child care homesb Unknown Unknown Unknown 6,714 Legally exempt child carec Unknown Unknown Unknown ~1,100 Unregulated child care Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown All ECE Care Unknown Unknown Unknown 22,729 Source: The Vermont Department for Children and Families, Child Development Division, 2008 (electronic mail) and, for Head Start, National Center for Children in Poverty, 2008. NOTE: These are data on licensed capacity; preferred capacity is unknown and some providers prefer to care for fewer children than they are licensed to serve. a The infant and toddler capacity for early childhood programs include 360 children served by Early Head Start. b The capacity of registered family child care homes is an estimate based on the allowance of each to serve up to six preschool children. c The total capacity of legally exempt providers is unknown; however, we do know there are 800 legally exempt providers caring for 1,100 children who are receiving subsidies.
Figure 5 shows our estimates of the percentages of children ages birth to five in various care arrangements. Nearly half of the birth to five population in child care are in early childhood programs (excluding Head Start), one quarter of children are in registered family child care homes, and 15% are in unregulated care.
Because there is not information available on the ages of children in registered family child care homes, we are not able to examine arrangements for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers separately. The national picture of primary child care arrangements for infant and toddlers shows that half of the children born in 2001 were in child care at 9 months of age; 26% were in relative care, 15% were in family child care, and 9% were in center-based care (Kreader, Ferguson, and Lawrence, 2005).
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Figure 5: Care Settings of Vermont's Children Birth to Five
50% 46% 45%
40%
35% 30% 25% 25% 20% 15% 15% 10% 6% 4% 5% 3% 1% 0% Early Registered Unregulated Head Start Legally Non- Licensed childhood family child child care exempt reoccurring family child programs care homes child care care homes Vermont is similar to all New England Source: Estimated by author; see first paragraph in this section. states in its dearth of accredited FCC Table 5 is a New England accreditation and child care capacity snapshot (for homes. children under 12). Vermont ranks in the middle of the New England states in terms of accredited centers; the percentage of accredited centers in Massachusetts is more than twice that of Vermont, while Vermont’s rate is three times that of New Hampshire. All states are equivalent in their severe lack of accredited FCC homes. Relative to its birth to 11 population, Vermont has the highest percentage of child care spaces; however, the ratio is only 46% (compared to the 70% of birth to five children we estimated as in need of care).
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Table 5 Accreditation and Capacity of Child Care in Vermont Compared to New England States # (%) # (%) accredited accredited # spaces 0-11 pop. Spaces:population FCC centers homes 115 12 Vermont 34,582 75,192 46% (18%) (1%) 76 48 Maine 45,515 159,602 29% (11%) (2%) New 64 4 48,357 169,974 28% Hampshire (6%) (1%) 1,256 83 Massachusetts 296,342 857,172 35% (49%) (1%) 58 7 Rhode Island 30,157 138,875 22% (14%) (1%) 476 6 Connecticut 159,372 475,534 34% (23%) (<1%) Source: Compiled by NACCRRA. March 2008.Data provided by CCR&R State Networks and derived from CCR&R data
PAYING FOR CHILD CARE
In order to assess the affordability of child care for Vermont families, we first present data on the prevailing child care market rates and then consider family income and child care costs as a percentage of family budgets.
Early Care and Education Rates
As shown in Table 6, in Vermont, the 75th percentile weekly market rate – the rate below which 75% of the market rates in a group fall – averages between $155 and $160 for licensed centers and between $125 and $130 for registered homes.
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Table 6 Vermont Early Care and Education 75th Percentile Weekly Market Rate Increases 2000-2006 Licensed Centers 2000a 2003b 2006c % increase 2000-2006 Infants $135.00 $159.50 $160.00 16% Toddlers $129.00 $150.00 $158.13 18% Preschool $120.00 $140.00 $155.00 23% Registered Homes 2000a 2003b 2006c % increase 2000-2006 Infants $105.00 $125.00 $130.00 19% Toddlers $100.00 $110.00 $125.00 20% Preschool $95.00 $106.25 $125.00 24% a Source: Mills & Pardee, Inc. (2000). Vermont Child Care: A Study of Wages, Credentials, Benefits and Market Rates. b Source: Learning Partners, Inc. (2003). Child Care Programs in Vermont: A Survey of Market Rates and Capacity. c Source: Child Development Division, 2007
Child care market rate data from 2001, 2003, and 2006 indicate the cost of child care in Vermont has risen over time.2 Increases ranged from 16% to 24%, depending on age group and care setting. Infant costs were slowest rising, while preschool costs were fastest-rising. For each age group, increases were comparable for licensed centers and registered homes, indicating that demand for these care settings is growing at roughly the same rate. As is commonly the case, child care rates (and state payment rates) are highest for infants, as they require closer care than older children.
Over approximately the same period of time, all consumer prices rose about 21% nationally. In general, Vermont rates rose near this average inflation rate; only preschool rates exceeded it slightly.
Child Care Costs and Family Income
Childcare costs take up a significant portion of Vermont families’ household Child care takes up budgets, at a rate higher than the national average. Child care tends to be the 15% of family second largest component of family budgets, taking up about 15% of the budget budgets in Vermont. (Teachout, 2007). In national studies, the average percent of income spent on child care is between 6% and 10%.
In addition, monthly child care expenditures have risen since 1999. In particular, from 2005 to 2007, there was a 20% increase (from $758 to $1062) in the monthly child care expenditures of urban families and a corresponding 15%
2 Note that these three market rate studies were carried out by different contractors who may have used different methodologies. 16 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
increase for rural families (from $681 to $880) (Teachout, 2007). Figure 6 displays these data.
Figure 6
Monthly Childcare Expenditures in Vermont 1999-2007 1200
1062 1000
880
800 758 733 686 681 650 600 607 568 576 581 549 532 528 496 493 471 414 418 400 387 Monthly Dollar Amount
200
0 1999 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 Year Urban: 1 Child Urban: 2 Children Rural: 1 Child Rural: 2 Children
Source: Teachout, 2007.
Table 7 shows how Vermont compares to other New England states in terms of median family income and the price of child care. The median family income in Vermont is $61,561, higher only than Maine among the New England States. The price of care is also lower in Vermont than in other states, for the most part. In all states, the price of care is higher for infants than four-year olds and higher for center care than for FCC.
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Table 7 Price of Child Care in Vermont Compared to New England States Median Infant in 4-year Infant in 4-year family center old in FCC old in income center home FCC home Vermont $61,561 $7,475 $7,056 $6,381 $5,877 Maine $56,266 $8,424 $7,020 $6,344 $6,032 New $74,625 $9,776 $7,540 $7,592 $7,020 Hampshire Massachusetts $78,497 $14,591 $10,787 $9,630 $9,164 Rhode Island $70,187 $9,464 $7,800 $7,800 $7,800 Connecticut $81,421 $11,274 $9,111 $8,740 $8,322 Source: Compiled by NACCRRA. March 2008.Data provided by CCR&R State Networks and derived from CCR&R data
FAMILIES WITH LOW INCOMES AND CHILD CARE SUBSIDIES
In this section of the report, we discuss poverty in Vermont and sources of funding that low-income families can use to pay for child care, namely child care subsidies. More than 5,000 (14%) children ages birth to five in Vermont live in poverty. See Table 8.
Table 8 More than 5,000 of Early Childhood Population in Poverty in Vermont, by AHS District 0-5 in Poverty Vermont’s youngest 0-5 Population children live in Number % Barre 4,254 493 12% poverty. Bennington 2,226 438 20% Brattleboro 2,202 336 15% Burlington 9,920 1,153 12% Hartford 2,844 330 12% Middlebury 2,240 278 12% Morrisville 2,027 294 15% Newport 1,778 408 23% Rutland 3,806 703 19% Springfield 2,087 228 11% St. Albans 4,089 585 14% St. Johnsbury 2,125 362 17% Vermont 39,598 5,448 14% Source: Executive Director, Building Bright Futures, 2008 (electronic mail).
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While child care costs are significant for all Vermont families, they are especially burdensome for the state’s most vulnerable families. These families rely on subsidies for access to child care. The federal government has established the 75th percentile – the rate below which 75% of the market rates in a group fall – as the standard for ensuring that families receiving child care subsidies have access to the market.
In Vermont, the 75th percentile weekly market rate averages between $155 and $160 for licensed centers and between $125 and $130 for registered homes. The state payment rates – the full subsidy rates for families established by the Child Development Division – average between $111 and $126 for centers, and between $87 and $101 for registered homes. Thus, according to the figures, a Vermont family qualifying for state subsidies, with a toddler and preschooler attending a licensed center, would need to provide an additional $78 per week, or $312 a month, from their own household income to pay for child care. These data are displayed in Table 9.
Table 9 Vermont Early Care and Education 75th Percentile Weekly Market Rate Compared to State Payment Rates Licensed Centers 75th Percentile State Payment Difference Weekly Market Rates between 75th Rate Percentile and SPR Infants $160.00 $125.46 $-34.54 Toddlers $158.13 $124.42 $-33.71 Preschool $155.00 $110.82 $-44.18 Registered Homes 75th Percentile State Payment Difference Weekly Market Rates between 75th Rate Percentile and SPR Infants $130.00 $100.98 $-29.02 Toddlers $125.00 $99.96 $-25.04 Preschool $125.00 $86.70 $-38.30 Source: Child Development Division, 2007
Vermont has not changed the income limit for child care subsidies since 1999. Outdated income eligibility guidelines means that many Vermont parents do not qualify for financial assistance for child care. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, this “effectively reduces access for families from those below 212 percent of the federal poverty level in 2001, to 187 percent in 2006. The 2008 Child Care Advisory Board puts it in these terms: “In 1999, $37,380 was approximately 225% of the federal poverty level. In 2007, a similar family at 225% of the updated federal poverty level has an income of $46,463. Today such a family would not be eligible for a child care subsidy because its income exceeds $37,380.”
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Table 10 shows how Vermont fares on policies related to Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Subsidies and the State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. In Vermont, families in poverty may need to spend 15% of their income on child care and their providers may have additional charges.
Table 10 Vermont State Choices to Promote Child Care Affordability and Access Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Subsidies Earnings limit for a single- $31,032/year parent family of 3 Co-payment as percent of 15% income for family of 3 at 150% FPL, 1 child in care Provider prohibited from No charging additional fees Provider payment rates at least No 75th percentile of market rate State Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Refundable credit available Yes Benefit structure 2 credits: refundable credit of 50% of the federal credit; nonrefundable credit of 24% of the federal Max benefit for family with 2 or $1,050/year more qualifying children Source: National Center for Children in Poverty, 2007.
EARLY CHILDHOOD SPENDING IN VERMONT
In FY 2006, Vermont spent a total of $70,578,546 on early childhood programs. These expenditures accounted for 2% of the total appropriations for the two related main line budget items of Human Services ($1,502,442,843) and General Education ($1,696,950,426).
Vermont’s biggest early childhood expenditure by far was the state’s subsidy program, which, at over $22.5 million, accounts for nearly one-third of early childhood spending. See Table11. The vast majority (92%) of early childhood spending is on targeted programs.
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Table 11 Early Childhood Spending in Vermont, by Program Funding Spending % of Total (F=Federal; S=State) Universal Early Childhood Programs Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention F, S $262,000 0.37% Vermont Children’s Trust Fund S $85,802 0.12% Parent Child Centers S $762,060 1.08% Resource and Referral N/A $3,103,646 4.40% Success by Six/Building Bright Futures S $1,438,906 2.04% direct service grants
Targeted Early Childhood Programs Accommodation Grants F $239,792 0.34% Children's Integrated Services: Healthy F, S $2,698,244 3.82% Babies, Kids, and Families (HBKF) Children's Integrated Services: Family, F $4,129,447 5.85% Infant & Toddler Program (FITP) Children's Integrated Services: Children’s F, S $2,599,223 3.68% UPstream Services (CUPS) DCF Child Care Subsidy F $22,687,321 32.14% Early Head Start F $3,341,823 4.73% The Early Education Initiative Program F, S $1,308,785 1.85% (EEI) Essential Early Education (EEE)* F $7,619,835 10.80% Even Start F $445,400 0.63% Head Start (excludes Early HS) F $9,921,662 14.06% Quality Enhancement Grants for Infant & S $538,031 0.76% Toddler Child Care Supported Child Care Grants N/A $1,073,090 1.52% WIC F $8,323,479 11.79% Total $70,578,546 100.00% Source: Executive Director, Building Bright Futures, 2008 (electronic mail). * Includes EEE State Grants ($4,379,337), IDEA-B Basic Grants ($2,559,879) and IDEA-B Preschool Grants ($680,619). NOTE: The funding source(s) for these programs is subject to some interpretation. For example, Head Start is a federally funded program, yet the state pays child care subsidies for eligible families whose children attend Head Start.
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According to Building Bright Futures designations, eight of the 13 programs are federally funded and total $54.4 million. Five programs are designated as state- funded: Vermont Children’s Trust Fund, Parent Child Centers, Success By Six, Early Head Start and Quality Enhancement Grants for Infant and Toddler Child Care. State funding for these programs amounts to $6.2 million.
Of Vermont’s 12 Agency of Human Services districts, Burlington has the largest birth to five population. It also has the largest number of young children in poverty, although other districts have higher rates of child poverty. While Burlington has the highest early childhood spending in the state (accounting for 18% of Vermont’s total early childhood spending), it has the lowest per capita expenditures for birth to five. The highest per capita expenditures are in Newport and Brattleboro, and Brattleboro also has the highest per capita in poverty expenditures. See Table 12.
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Table 12 Early Childhood Population/Population in Poverty in Vermont, by AHS District 0-5 Population Spending Per capita 0-5 in Poverty Per capita in poverty Amount % (0-5) expenditures Number % (0-5) expenditures Barre 4,254 $7,687,208 11% $1,807 493 12% $15,593 Bennington 2,226 $4,925,569 7% $2,213 438 20% $11,246 Brattleboro 2,202 $5,812,588 8% $2,640 336 15% $17,299 Burlington 9,920 $12,725,862 18% $1,283 1,153 12% $11,037 Hartford 2,844 $4,921,681 7% $1,731 330 12% $14,914 Middlebury 2,240 $3,899,822 6% $1,741 278 12% $14,028 Morrisville 2,027 $4,083,589 6% $2,014 294 15% $13,890 Newport 1,778 $4,742,512 7% $2,667 408 23% $11,624 Rutland 3,806 $6,351,474 9% $1,669 703 19% $9,035 Springfield 2,087 $3,424,503 5% $1,641 228 11% $15,020 St. Albans 4,089 $6,635,672 9% $1,623 585 14% $11,343 St. Johnsbury 2,125 $4,085,580 6% $1,922 362 17% $11,286 Vermont 39,598 $70,578,546 100% $1,782 5,448 14% $12,955 Source: Executive Director, Building Bright Futures, 2008 (electronic mail).
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EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS IN VERMONT
As researchers at the first National Symposium on Early Childhood Science and Policy (held in June 2008 at Harvard University) explained, science points toward a three-tiered approach to ensure healthy child development (Magnuson, K., Yoshikawa, H., and Brooks-Gunn, J., 2008). At the first tier are universally available basic health services and early care and education. The second and third tiers include broadly and narrowly targeted interventions, respectively, for children experiencing varying degrees of stress. This section of the report describes the universal and targeted early childhood programs in Vermont.
UNIVERSAL EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
There are five key universal early childhood programs in Vermont, that is, programs that are open to all families that want their children to participate. They include:
1. Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention 2. Vermont Children’s Trust Fund 3. Parent Child Centers 4. Resource and Referral 5. Success by Six/Building Bright Futures direct service grants
Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/discretionary/community.ht m
The federal Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program (CBCAP) is one of two formula grant programs directed by the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN), Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The lead agency for Vermont’s CBCAP is the Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs, one of five Boards/Committees of the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS).
In their October 2008 meeting, the Prevention Committee of the Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs reported the breakdown of CBCAP programs funded this year:
Parent to Parent of Vermont $32,400 Prevent Child Abuse-Vermont (Nurturing) $48,600 Prevent Child Abuse-Vermont (Shaken Baby Syndrome) $10,000 Vermont Parent Child Centers $217,960 Vermont Children’s Trust Foundations $50,000 Total awarded $332,960
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The Vermont Parent Child Centers and the Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation are other universally available programs described in this section of the report.
Parent to Parent of Vermont http://www.partoparvt.org/
In July 2008, Parent to Parent merged with the Vermont Parent Information Center to form the Vermont Family Network. Parent to Parent is a state-wide organization, first established in 1984, to build a support network among parents with children who have an illness or disability, healthcare professionals, and communities. Statistics presented on the program’s web site indicate it reaches 15% (over 3,000) of the families who have children with an illness or disability
Parent to Parent Programs include the following:
Family Support: Coordinators pair families with trained parent volunteers for information, resources, and emotional support.
Family Infant Toddler Program (FITP): The FITP is an early intervention programs for families with children birth to three. The program provides access to child development professionals, access to services, and access to evaluations.
Family Faculty: Family Faculty is a three-component collaboration between Parent to Parent and the University of Vermont. First, the Medical Student Training Project features a four-part course designed by families and physicians and required for all third year medical students during their pediatric clerkship. Second, the Families in Resident Student Training (FIRST) program is unique in matching each resident with a teaching-family. Finally, the Vermont Interdisciplinary Leadership Education for Health Professionals Program (VT- ILEHP) is a 40-hour practicum during which each trainee/fellow joins families in daily life experiences, completes a family-identified project, and has opportunities for trainees/fellows to share their experiences with one another.
Family Voices of Vermont: Family Voices is a national grassroots network of families and friends that functions as a family support program of Parent to Parent of Vermont.
Vermont Children’s Trust Fund http://www.vtchildrenstrust.org/
The Vermont Children's Trust Fund was established in 1986 by an act of the Vermont Legislature. In 1983, the legislature mandated that a prevention plan be developed for every state department. The Trust Fund is sponsored by the Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs (CFCPP), and housed within the Department for Children and Families, Child Development Division.
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The Trust Fund supports statewide prevention programs for children and families, including but not limited to preschool programs and literacy initiatives. The average grant is about $7,000 (ranging from $1,000 to $20,000). Programs are funded for one year, with the option of reapplying for second and third year funding in decreasing amounts.
As of fall 2008, sources of revenue for the Trust Fund were:
State General Fund $100,651 Interest earned plus FY 2007 cancelled grant $16,419 Federal Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Formula Grant $163,200 Children’s Tax Check-off3 $125,575 Vermont Children's Trust Foundation4 $90,000 Total Annual Prevention Program Grants $495,585 Source: Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation, 2008.
Parent Child Centers http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/contact_us/pcc
Vermont has 15 Parent Child Centers that partner with the Agency of Human Services to provide home visiting as part of a variety of supports and services for families. The Child Development Division supports the statewide network:
1. Addison County Parent Child Center, Middlebury 2. Champlain Islands Parent Child Center, Alburg & South Hero 3. Early Education Services of Windham County, Brattleboro 4. The Family Center of Northwestern Vermont, St. Albans 5. The Family Center of Washington County, Montpelier 6. The Family Place, Norwich 7. Lamoille Family Center, Morrisville 8. Lund Family Center, Burlington, Huntington, Winooski, Bolton 9. Milton Family Community Center, Milton 10. NEKCA/Child and Family Development Program, Newport, St. Johnsbury 11. Orange County Parent Child Center, Chelsea 12. Springfield Area Parent Child Center, North Springfield 13. Sunrise Family Resource Center, Bennington 14. Rutland County Parent Child Center, Rutland 15. VNA/Maternal Child Health Services, Burlington & Colchester
3 The state legislature passed a bill in 1996 putting the Vermont Children's Trust Fund on the state income tax returns. 4 In 1991, the Vermont Children's Trust Foundation was established to raise funds from the private and corporate sectors to help bridge the gap between requests for funds and funds available. 25 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Core services include the following: • Information and Referral • On Site Services • Home Visiting • Early Childhood Service • Playgroups • Parent Education • Parent Support • Community Development
The network of Vermont Parent Child Centers also works with the Vermont Parent Information Center (VPIC) on The Parent Information and Resource Center of Vermont (PIRC Vermont), a statewide project that is part of a national initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide parent and educator support, information, and training related to school readiness.
Resource and Referral http://www.vermontchildcare.org/
Vermont's child care resource and referral network is made up of 12 non-profit agencies located throughout Vermont’s 14 counties. These include:
• Addison Region, Addison County Child Care Services at Mary Johnson Children's Center, Middlebury • Bennington Region, Bennington County Child Care Association of Sunrise Family Resource Center, Bennington • Caledonia/Essex South Regions, Kingdom Child Care Connection at Umbrella, St. Johnsbury • Chittenden Region, Child Care Resource, Williston • Franklin/Grand Isle Regions, The Family Center of Northwestern Vermont, St. Albans • Lamoille Region, Lamoille Family Center, Morrisville • Orange/Windsor (North) Regions, Child Care Project, Hanover, New Hampshire • Orleans and Essex (North) Regions, North East Kingdom Community Action Parent Child Center, Newport • Rutland Region, Vermont Achievement Center, Rutland • Windsor (South)/Windham (North) Regions, Springfield Area Parent Child Center, North Springfield • Washington Region, Family Center of Washington County, Montpelier • Windham Region (Except for Northern-most towns), Windham Child Care Association, Brattleboro
The professional organization representing these resource and referral agencies is the Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (VACCRRA). VACCRRA works with the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). VACCRRA focuses on the big picture of Vermont’s child care service delivery system by advocating for child care quality, accessibility and affordability, and by delivering resource, referral and tuition assistance services throughout the state. VACCRRA is funded by the 26 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Child Development Division of Vermont and contributions from member agencies.
The VACCRRA member agencies (which the state also refers to as child care support agencies) provide three key services to their local constituents: • Child Care Referral – Through local Child Care Referral Specialists, member agencies provide information to parents about child care options and educate the public about the importance of quality child care. • Child Care Resource – Through local Resource Development Specialists, member agencies provide professional development resources and technical assistance to registered home providers and licensed centers. • Child Care Subsidy Eligibility Determination – Member agencies have subsidy specialists that guide parents through the child care subsidy program application process.
Success by Six http://humanservices.vermont.gov/publications/vermont-s-success-by-six- initiative
Success by Six is an Agency of Human Services/Department of Education collaboration project, more a strategy than a traditional program per se. There are 14 community and regionally based projects that are funded through grants to local organizations and groups. The community projects decide on their own mix of prenatal and post-partum care, parent education, and other support services, including home visits, playgroups, library activities, parent support groups, developmental screening, transition to school activities, early literacy activities, and nutrition education.
However, the core component of the project is Welcome Baby Visits. In FY 2003, 89% of the 6,385 families with newborns (identified by the Vermont Department of Health) received a welcoming letter and/or a telephone call and 78% (n=4,425) of those accepted the home visit, information, and gifts offered to them. The 14 Success by Six community projects include: • Addison County: Mary Johnson Children’s Center, Middlebury • Bennington County: Vermont Department of Health, Bennington • Brattleboro Region: Early Childhood Council of Windham County, Brattleboro • Chittenden County: Early Childhood Connection, Burlington • Franklin County: Meg Baker, St. Albans • Grand Isle County: Champlain Islands Parent Child Center, Alburg • Hartford Area: The Family Place, Norwich • Lamoille Valley: Lamoille Valley Success By Six, Morrisville • Newport Area: Northeast Kingdom Adult Basic Ed, Derby • Orange County: Orange County Parent Child Center, Randolph • Rutland County: Rutland County Parent Child Center, Rutland • St. Johnsbury Area: St. Johnsbury Success By Six , St. Johnsbury • Springfield Area: Springfield Area Parent Child Center, North Springfield • Washington County: The Family Center of Washington County, Barre 27 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
TARGETED EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
Targeted early childhood programs exist primarily to offset the poor child outcomes linked to poverty. The major targeted early childhood programs in Vermont are described here.
Accommodation Grants http://www.brightfutures.dcf.state.vt.us/Forms/Grant/Special_Accommodation_ Grant_App.pdf
The Child Development Division (CDD) of the Vermont Department for Children and Families funds grants for special accommodations for children with special needs in regulated child care. Grant applications for individual children are submitted in collaboration with teams from Children’s Integrated Services, Essential Early Education (EEE), and other organizations serving children and their families. Eligibility requirements include but are not limited to licensed centers having a Continuous Improvement Plan and Registered Family Child Care Home Providers having their Child Development Associate (CDA) or higher degree and having a current Individual Professional Development Plan.
Children’s Integrated Services http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/early_intervention
Children’s Integrated Services (CIS) is a new program of the Child Development Division that is in the process of bringing three distinct programs under its umbrella. The three programs include: Healthy Babies, Kids & Families (HBKF), Family, Infant & Toddler Program (FITP), and Children’s UPstream Services (CUPS). The CIS program is to feature local teams with a range of child development expertise that help families develop action plans and obtain services and referrals.
Healthy Babies, Kids & Families (HBKF) http://thebristolobservatory.com/PIP/PIP060413.pdf Healthy Babies, Kids & Families (HBKF) of Vermont was one of four state grants of The Commonwealth Fund-supported Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) program. The broad aim of the program was to enhance the delivery of developmental services to low-income children.
Family, Infant & Toddler Program (FITP) http://www.partoparvt.org/fitp99.html As described earlier under Parent to Parent programs, the FITP is an early intervention programs for families with children birth to three that allows them to work with child development professionals to obtain child development information, access services and access evaluations.
Children’s UPstream Services (CUPS) http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/shn/2006/id473.htm CUPS is a statewide social and emotional health initiative that provides direct mental health services to families (approximately 500 new families per year), 28 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
consultations for early care and education programs (more than 1,300 per year), and interagency trainings for parents and direct service providers (more than 200 per year).
The Vermont Department for Children and Families Child Care Subsidy http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/pay_child_care/subsidy
As explained earlier, the child care subsidy is a payment that assists eligible Vermont families with the cost of child care. The state pays the child care program or provider directly. Families are usually responsible for making up any difference between the child care rate and the state payment rate.
Head Start/Early Head Start http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/contact_us/head_start
Head Start is a national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services to enrolled children and families. The Head Start program provides grants to local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies to provide comprehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged children and families, with a special focus on helping preschoolers develop the early reading and math skills they need to be successful in school. In 1995, the Early Head Start program was established to serve children from birth to three years of age.
Vermont has seven regional, Head Start Bureau funded programs that provide services to low-income children ages three to five. The seven regions include: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Rutland, Southwest, Southeast, and Brattleboro. Three of the programs – those in the Northeast, Central, and Brattleboro regions – also serve children from birth to age three with Early Head Start.
The Early Education Initiative Program (EEI) http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_earlyed.html
Vermont’s Early Education Initiative (EEI), formed in 1987, provides early education services to children from families with low incomes (below 185% of the federal poverty level) and other risk factors, such as exposure to violence, neglect and substance abuse. Competitive grants to operate the program are provided by the Vermont Department of Education to Public Schools, Head Start agencies, Parent-Child Centers and private childcare providers. As of 2006, grants were issued at 1987 base levels of $30,000 per program, never having been adjusted to accommodate increased cost of living or operating expenses (Squires, 2006).
A total of 44 EEI programs served 1,104 children in 135 towns. (Waiting lists were maintained.) Of the 44 programs, 25 (57%) operated in school districts and supervisory unions, 11 (25%) were in Parent-Child Centers, 4 (9%) were in early
29 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009 childhood programs/child care centers, 3 (7%) were in Head Start agencies, and 1 (2%) was in a resource and referral agency (Squires, 2006).
Essential Early Education (EEE) http://www.education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_earlyed/essential_early.html
The Essential Early Education (EEE) program, funded by the department of education, serves three and four year olds who have substantial developmental delays. It began in 1975 in response to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). EEE programs typically operate in public schools, but more and more programs are operating in child care and Head Start settings.
Even Start http://www.education.vermont.gov/new/pdfdoc/pgm_earlyed/even_start_coordin ators_1208.pdf
The Even Start program began with the goal of halting the cycle of poverty and low literacy that seems to pass through generations of families in the United States. The program aims to create family literacy through combining early childhood education, adult literacy, and parenting education. In order to be eligible for the Even Start programs, a family must have a child under the age of eight, and a parent who is eligible for adult education under the Adult Education Act.
The Even Start programs target children from birth to age seven and their parents by focusing on language development, literacy, the establishment of positive learning habits, and the supporting of families seeking educational and economic independence.
Even Start programs exist in five different locations across Vermont: Barre (Barre Even Start), Burlington (Even Start for the New American Community), Barton (Central Orleans Family Education Center Even Start Program), Hyde Park (Lamoille Valley Even Start), and Rutland (Rutland Region Even Start).
Quality Enhancement Grants for Infant & Toddler Child Care http://www.brightfutures.dcf.state.vt.us/Forms/Grant/Overview%20of%20Qualit y%20Enhancement%20Grants.pdf
The overarching goal of these Child Development Division grants is to improve the quality of early care and education. Registered family child care home providers, licensed programs, health and mental health consultants, and others who provide intervention for infants/toddlers and preschoolers are eligible to apply. The grants support professional development, program accreditation, and equipment. Funding sources for the grants include: • The Federal Child Care and Development Fund Grant to the State of Vermont, • The Federal Department of Education Office of Special Education Grant to the State of Vermont, • Vermont’s (Federal) State Head Start Collaboration Grant, and • Vermont State General Funds. 30 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Supported Child Care Grants
The data about early childhood spending compiled by Building Bright Futures notes over $1 million was spent on supported child care grants. We have no additional information about these grants.
WIC http://healthvermont.gov/family/wic/wic_vt.aspx
WIC serves income-eligible women and young children (birth to five) who are nutritionally or medically at risk, including pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women. The goal of the program is to improve health through health education and services, including providing healthy foods.
VERMONT INFANT AND TODDLER INITIATIVES5
Vermont has four key initiatives that address the needs of infants and toddlers in child care settings. All four of the initiatives have a statewide scope. Each initiative addresses a different element of the early care and education system (as defined by the National Infant and Toddler Child Care Initiative Ecomodel). The initiatives and the ECE elements are listed here and described below:
1. Children’s Integrated Services - Health & Safety; Parent & Family Involvement; Social and Emotional Health 2. VT Early Learning Standards - Early Learning Guidelines 3. Vermont’s Child Care Subsidy Reserved Space Agreement - Child Care; Early Head Start; Quality Improvement 4. Building Bright Futures Initiative - Governance/Leadership
CHILDREN’S INTEGRATED SERVICES
CIS has been described in the Early Childhood Programs section of this report.
EARLY LEARNING STANDARDS
Vermont is one of 42 states that are implementing early learning guidelines (http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/goodstart/elgwebsites.html). (Other states are in the process of developing or revising their guidelines.) Vermont Early Learning Standards: Guiding the Development and Learning of Children Entering Kindergarten (2003) are for children 3 to 5 years.
5 Identified from the National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative @ Zero to Three database http://nitcci.db.zerotothree.org/initiativesp/results.aspx?union=AND&viewby=50&st artrec=1&tbl_Public_InitiativeYMGHFREStateTerritoryTribe=VT 31 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
The Standards cover eight general areas of learning that intersect with school readiness domains identified by the National Education Goals Panel, the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, and are comparable to standards used in other states. They also relate to the Vital Results and Fields of Knowledge of Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities (VFSLO) for PreK-Grade 12. The eight general areas of learning include: • Approaches to Learning • Social and Emotional Development • Language, Literacy and Communication • Mathematics • Science • Social Studies • Creative Expression • Physical Health and Development
Vermont does not currently have early learning standards or developmental guidelines for infants and toddlers. However, according to The Star Atlas, early childhood and afterschool professional development news from the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center, several interconnected workgroups in the state are creating First Steps: Guiding the development and learning of Vermont's infants and toddlers.
CHILD CARE SUBSIDY RESERVED SPACE AGREEMENT
The federal Early Head Start program (EHS) was designed to support the healthy development of low-income infants and toddlers. Research has shown that EHS is effective in promoting child and parent outcomes. Unfortunately, less than 3 percent of all eligible children can be served with federal funds.
Vermont is one of 20 states with initiatives to build on Early Head Start services for infants, toddlers, and their families and one of 12 states whose approach is to extend the day/year of existing EHS services. Other states’ actions include:
• Expanding the capacity of existing EHS and Head Start programs to increase the number of children and pregnant women served • Providing resources and assistance to child care providers to help them deliver services meeting EHS standards • Supporting partnerships between EHS and center-based and family child care providers to improve the quality of care
Vermont’s initiative, begun in 1999, serves a small number of families compared to federally funded Early Head Start; the total number of children birth to age three served by the state’s EHS initiative in FY 2007 was 45, compared to 279 federally funded (through the Administration for Children and Families) slots (Schumacher and DiLauro, 2008). Participating programs must receive four or five (out of five) stars on the state’s quality rating system.
Vermont uses state general revenue and Child Care Development and Block Grant (CCDBG) funds for its initiative. Oklahoma is the only state that 32 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
receives private foundation funds for its EHS initiative. Specific data on how much Vermont spends on its EHS initiative was not available.
VERMONT PUBLICLY FUNDED PREKINDERGARTEN http://www.education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_earlyed/prekindergarten.html
Vermont is one of 38 states that funds prekindergarten initiatives and one of only eight states with more than one initiative. The targeted EEI program was described earlier in the report; the Public Preschool Partnerships program is discussed here.
Vermont public schools can provide preschool education (for up to 10 hours per week) to all 3- and 4-year-old children (without regard to risk factors or other criteria) whose communities chose to participate; about 80 percent of the state’s local education agencies participate (Barnett et al., 2007). The Public Preschool Partnerships program currently serves children in public school settings or through collaborations with private child care centers and Head Start. Vermont is a leader in the nation when it comes to enrollment in state education-funded pre-kindergarten, with almost half (45%; n=2,908) of Vermont four-year-olds enrolled6, compared to 22% nationally (Barnett et al., 2007).
A funding formula allocates 40% of the K-6 education funding level to the Public Preschool Partnerships program, which can be supplemented with other funds. The State’s share of public education costs are funded through the Vermont Education Fund, supported by lottery proceeds, nonresidential property taxes, sales taxes and general appropriations, with the remainder accounted for by residential property taxes.
As one of our key informants explained, the preschool funding formula is based on enrollment from the two previous years, making start up difficult for new preschools without the two-year history. As a response to this challenge, some of the funders who commissioned this report, in collaboration with other philanthropic partners, founded the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative. The aim of the program is to help establish high quality preschool programs and help them become eligible for public education funding.
Kindergarten Readiness Kindergarten readiness, as defined in Vermont, has five domains: social and emotional development, approaches to learning, communication, cognitive development and general knowledge, and physical health and well-being. Overall, children who were rated as “practicing” or “performing independently”
6 According to the National Institute of Early Education Research’s state preschool yearbook, 36% of four-year-olds are enrolled in Vermont Publicly Funded Prekindergarten Using Average Daily Membership and another 9% are enrolled in the Vermont Early Education Initiative. 33 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
on all items within the domain are as follows (Vermont Agency of Human Services, 2008):
• 62% social and emotional development • 44% approaches to learning • 79% communication • 52% cognitive development and general knowledge • 83% physical health and well-being
Teachers’ ratings of the individual competencies in each of these domains are based on their accumulated observations 4-6 weeks into the school year. At least three-quarters of children were either “practicing” or “performing independently” on nearly all of the individual competencies (Vermont Agency of Human Services, 2008).
There were seven ways in which children were less competent, that is, where fewer than 50 percent were “performing independently” (Vermont Agency of Human Services, 2008): 1. uses-problem solving skills in social situations 2. uses a variety of learning strategies 3. pays attention during teacher-directed group activities 4. knows how and when to use adults 5. can recall and explain sequences of events 6. shows beginning awareness of letter/sound correspondence 7. uses scribbles, symbols, or letters to write or represent words or ideas
Vermont also assesses the readiness of its schools to receive children. Of relevance to early care and education (Vermont Agency of Human Services, 2008): 1. 75% of schools meet the standard or have the resources for teacher visits to preschool/child care/parent child centers 2. 27% of schools meet the standard or have the resources for deriving kindergarten instructional practices from Preschool/Head Start/child care teachers 3. 8% of schools meet the standard or have the resources for deriving kindergarten instructional practices from discussion of previous year’s KG readiness data w/ childcare providers 4. 27% of schools meet the standard or have the resources for their action- planning processes to address issues of Pre-kindergarten
THE QUALITY OF EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION IN VERMONT
There are two broad ways to conceptualize and assess the quality of early care and education: 1. Structural measures—child-staff ratio and group size, caregivers’ general education and specialized training, their tenure and income 34 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
2. Process measures—children’s experiences, including caregivers’ interactions with the children
THE STRUCTURAL QUALITY OF CARE IN VERMONT
• Vermont’s regulations pertaining to child:adult ratio are not as strict as those recommended by professional organizations.7 Vermont has a 4:1 ratio for infants as well as for 18-month-olds, and a 10:1 ratio for both 3- and 4-year-olds (CDD). • Vermont requires annually a minimum of 12 (clock) hours of professional development activities.
Unlike process factors, structural factors can be regulated by policymakers. Licensing reflects the current requirements of many state statutes related to the health, safety and welfare of Vermont’s children. Registered and licensed providers must comply with all of Vermont laws including related health, safety or welfare regulations.
In 2006, NACCRRA first used research by the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) and the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) to rank the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) based on 15 basic criteria related to the basic standards and oversight in place for child care centers. This research was updated in 2009.
In 2006, Vermont’s overall score was 82 out of 150 and it ranked 10 out of 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2009, Vermont’s overall score went up to 94 out of 150; however, its rank dropped three places to 13. Scores and ranks were broken down for regulations and oversight. In 2006, Vermont ranked sixth in terms of regulations and 34th in terms of oversight. In the three year period between studies, Vermont improved its regulations ranking, but slipped in its oversight ranking; the 2009 ranks were fourth and 44th, respectively.
The most recent study shows that Vermont fully meets the standards in four areas: 1. Teachers are required to have a CDA or a relevant Associate’s degree. 2. Programs are required to address six developmental domains. 3. Programs are required to meet ten basic standards of health and safety. 4. Parent involvement is required.
The 2009 study points to two areas in which Vermont does not meet the standards:
7 Associations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association (1992) established age-based guidelines for group size and child:adult ratio. Their recommendations for child:adult ratios are 3:1 for children from birth to 24 months, 4:1 for children from 25 to 30 months, 5:1 for children from 31 to 35 months, 7:1 for 3-year-olds, and 8:1 for 4-year-olds. 35 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
1. Monitoring visits of centers are not conducted at the recommended frequency of four times per year. In fact, according to the report, there is not even an annual inspection requirement for child care centers in Vermont. 2. The programs to licensing staff ratio exceeds the recommended 50:1. The ratio in Vermont is 256:1.
There are an additional two areas in which Vermont substantially meets the standards and an additional seven areas in which the state only partially meets the standards. (See NACCRRA, 2006 and NACCRRA, 2009 and accompanying links for Vermont’s full profile from each study.)
THE PROCESS QUALITY OF CARE IN VERMONT
Measuring the process quality of care requires direct observations and recognition by the state’s quality rating system is determined by completing a self-assessment, and submitting supporting documentation, which are then reviewed by a contracted administrator.
At the national level, a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study found that, across all nonparental settings in the U.S., positive caregiving was highly characteristic for only 9% of toddlers, somewhat characteristic for 30%, somewhat uncharacteristic for 53%, and highly uncharacteristic for 8%.
PROGRAM ACCREDITATION
A widely accepted indicator of quality is accreditation by either a state or national quality rating system. In studies in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, participation in the state’s quality rating system has been linked to quality improvement.
In addition, in a recent study of Pennsylvania’s QRS, the QRS dimension made it into the top ten most important dimensions evaluated by parents. Respondents tended to rank programs with more stars as more desirable, thought they were worth more, and were willing to pay more for care in child care settings with larger numbers of stars.
Fewer than half of Vermont’s child care programs are accredited. For programs, the accreditation process varies, depending on the accreditation organization. The most common accrediting board that is used is NAEYC, under which a program administrator applies to receive the materials, and afterwards must decide to apply. This process itself may take a year or two during which the program undergoes a self-study, then applies and waits for an accreditation team to do a site visit. The team responds with issues the program needs to work on before receiving accreditation. On average, it takes one year to do the self-study, applying and review takes a year, plus an additional year of response.
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Step Ahead Recognition System (STARS) http://www.starsstepahead.org/
Because of some of the challenges that center- and school-based programs particularly faced with eligibility for NAEYC accreditation, the Department of Children and Families created a state-wide system of accreditation called the Step Ahead Recognition System (STARS). As one of only 14 states with a Quality Rating System, Vermont is a leader in taking a systemic approach to assessing, improving, and communicating the level of quality in its early care and education programs. Providers may apply for STARS recognition in five arenas. They are:
1. Compliance history (with state regulations) 2. Staff qualifications and training 3. Daily activities, interaction and overall support of children, families and community 4. Assessment (thoroughness of provider assessment of performance and improvement) 5. Administration (strength of program’s operating policies and business practices)
Due to the length of the NAEYC accreditation process, some providers use STARS instead of NAEYC, because it is more efficient for them. NAEYC accreditation costs $1200, which is mostly for the self-study materials, while STARS costs nothing. Also, STARS has different levels for recognition while NAEYC is simply “accredited” or “not.” One implication of this difference is that the STARS rating system requires that providers have bachelor’s degree for 5-stars; while NAEYC accreditation requires an associates.
Child care programs do not have to be in STARS to be eligible for NAEYC and visa versa. Programs can participate in STARS before becoming accredited; programs that are already accredited can participate in a streamlined process to enroll in STARS. Licensed programs that achieve accreditation under the new NAEYC standards can enter the STARS program at the five-star level.
According to the STARS quarterly report (Learning Partner, Inc., 2009), after being in operation for 5 years since 2004, approximately one-third of all care providers in Vermont are involved with the STARS program. As of January 2009, • 434 programs had submitted applications to STARS • 341 programs had completed the application process • 22 programs with submitted applications are in process of completing the application • 142 programs are in their first year in STARS, 53 programs are in their second year and have completed an annual renewal, 146 programs have been in STARS for more than 2 years, renewing 2, 3 or 4 times • 25 participating programs closed • 27 programs discontinued participation by not completing the renewal • 19 programs submitted applications and subsequently closed or chose not to continue 37 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
• 114 of 434 programs qualify for the streamlined process (NAEYC, NAFCC, NAA or NECPA accredited or Head Start program of quality or excellence), 35 of these earned 5 stars by meeting the high standards of the new NAEYC accreditation process or were Head Start programs achieving Blue or Gold Certificates • Over 8,800 children are enrolled in child care, early education and afterschool programs that are participating in STARS.
Vermont programs that are already accredited through one of the following national programs use a streamlined STARS application and may enter at a certain level: 1. NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) 2. NAA (National After School Association) 3. NAFCC (National Association of Family Child Care) 4. NECPA (National Early Childhood Program Accreditation) 5. Head Start and Early Head Start child care programs that have achieved Blue or Gold Certificates
According to our stakeholder interviews, qualitative research has found that Vermont ECC providers felt that STARS has the advantages of: being less time consuming and easier than acquiring NAEYC accreditation; offers financial incentives for participants; includes school-based programs; and aligns well with other types of programs. For instance, four-star programs can receive a one-time bonus of $1,150 (five-star programs receive a bonus of $1,550) in addition to the current Child Development Division system of $1,000 bonuses for accreditation, credentialing and renewals. Five-star programs receive bonuses linked to tuition reimbursement (subsidy) rate from the Vermont child care subsidy program for services to income eligible children.
However, providers felt that if their program was already seeking NAEYC accreditation, it would be difficult to do both STARS and NAEYC, especially since STARS ratings do not translate to the NAEYC requirements. (For example, though a program had NAEYC accreditation, they still did not qualify for more than 3 STARS because of staff pay structure. The path between STARS and NAEYC is not connected). Additionally, they felt that STARS involved too many logistics which takes time away from children, that many programs were not eligible because they did not meet the 5-year ownership requirement, and for fear that having a low rating is worse than having no rating.
It is noteworthy that the efficacy and impact of Vermont’s approach has not been tested. To our knowledge, VT has not examined rating validity, or how well the ratings represent actual program quality. Other states have done this by comparing independent observation to the QRS rating or by contracting a research study. In addition, STARS is designed to inform parents about levels of quality, yet we were not able to find any information about the extent to which parents are aware of STARS, engage with the system, and feel empowered by it.
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ECE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN VERMONT
“We make this call because we believe this to be a defining moment to establish public expectations for both the standard of care for young children and the qualifications of those who provide that care. Establishing a firm foundation for this work requires greater recognition and investment by both public and private entities.” — Valora Washington and Aspire Institute (2008)
Research confirms that the quality of early care and education is associated with the level and type of training in professional development (Barnett, 2003; McMullen & Alat, 2002). Research by the Vermont Association for Child Care and Referral Agencies (VACCRA) shows that the caregiver’s education, training, and ability to provide a safe and stimulating environment has an impact on children’s well-being and cognitive and emotional development (VACCRA, 2008).
Given that more than 5,000 early care providers and educators provide services to children in Vermont, there is a high demand for well-trained Vermont early educators. Vermont has several interconnected state agencies, institutions, and programs that support early care and education professional development.
ECE WORKFORCE
Vermont is in need of updated information on characteristics of its ECE workforce. ECE workforce studies are useful in describing the workforce in order to formulate policy, develop programs, and assess progress and challenges. A forthcoming report Such studies commonly document workforce demographics, including salary and from Vermont’s PPD benefits, and education and training. committee will provide To our knowledge, the last major statewide study of the ECE workforce was in much needed 1999, when the former Child Care Services Division (CCSD) of the Agency for information on the Human Services (AHS) commissioned a study by a research team that included state’s ECE workforce. GRG. To our knowledge, there were two surveys of Vermont early childhood professionals conducted in 2008 that will provide some more updated information.
First, the Early Childhood and Family Mental Health (ECFMH) Competencies workgroup – a task group that helps plan and implement the work of the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center (discussed later) – surveyed early childhood professionals who work with young children with social/emotional or behavioral challenges, with a return of 186. The survey gathered information on education levels and professional development needs. Highlights were reported in The Star Atlas.
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Then, in fall 2008, the Professional Preparation and Development committee (PPD) – the advisory committee of the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center – conducted a professional development survey of Vermont’s early childhood professionals, for which they received 672 returns and are currently analyzing the data. The survey will update information on providers’ highest levels of education (along with their majors) and their relevant credentials and certificates. Further, it will be possible to detail the results by type of program, type of provider, and region.
Number of ECE Providers
At the time we compiled data for this report, Vermont had 1,137 registered family child care providers and 678 licensed child care centers. In terms of actual number of child care workers in Vermont, there are discrepancies between the Vermont Economic & Labor Market Information estimate of 3,733 (in 2006) and other reports of closer to 5,000 (Windham Child Care Association and the Peace & Justice Center, 2002).8
National projections suggest a faster-than-average 18% increase in the employment of child care workers between 2006 and 2016 due to decreases in parental and relative care (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008).
Salary and Benefits
Child care providers are among the lowest paid workers, nationally and in Vermont ranks 12th Vermont, with their wages frequently compared to maids, bellhops, and counter in the nation for clerks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of preschool teacher child care workers in Vermont is $19,720. This is comparable to the national average (see Figure 7). The average salary of preschool teachers is $28,640, salaries and 22nd which is slightly higher than the national average. Child care worker pay is when it comes to equivalent across major areas of the state, but preschool teacher salaries vary, child care worker with salaries highest in Southern Vermont and lowest in Burlington/South salaries. Burlington. See Appendix C for more information.
8 The number of child care workers excluding self-employed providers is estimated at 1,470 (NACCRRA, 2008). 40 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
Figure 7: Average Annual Salaries of Child Care Workers and Preschool Teachers
$35,000
$30,000
$25,000
$20,000 Child Care
$15,000 Preschool
$10,000
$5,000
$0 National Vermont Burlington- Southern Northern South Vermont Vermont Burlington
Source: Occupational Employment Statistics, Vermont Labor Market Information, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released June 2008.
We did not find current information on benefits available to Vermont’s ECE workforce, so we draw on information from our own 1999 study. At that time, In 1999, 57% of about six in ten centers offered full-time employees paid sick time and Vermont’s child care reimbursement for professional development, about five in ten centers offered centers provided paid vacation and medical insurance. A minority of centers offered other financial support for benefits. See Table 13. Three in ten child care centers told us they had faced employee difficulty in hiring new staff specifically because of a lack of benefits. professional Table 13 development. Percentage of Vermont Child Care Centers Offering Benefits in 1999 Offered to Full-Offered to Part- time Employees time Employees Paid sick time/personal days 61% 34% Financial assistance for 57% 38% professional development Paid vacation 54% 24% Medical insurance 45% 13% Reduced rates for staff’s 43% 25% children Financial assistance to cover 43% 25% courses for credit Paid staff break 33% 19% Retirement plan 27% 10% Dental insurance 24% 7% Disability insurance 24% 8% Paid parental leave 15% 4% Source: Mills and Pardee, 2000.
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The vast majority (87%) of Vermont’s family child care respondents had health insurance in 1999. Most of them had obtained coverage through the Vermont Health Access Program; others were covered on their spouses’ policies, and some had purchased their insurance themselves.
CHILD CARE PROVIDER AND CENTER BUDGETS
In order to include in this study an understanding of what it takes to operate a child care program, the Vermont Community Loan Fund provided us with data from which to construct three more or less “typical” case studies. The chart below shows revenue and expenses for a family child care provider with six full- time children, a for-profit child care center with 40 children, and a non-profit child care center with 37 children. In these cases, the centers’ ending balances are roughly equivalent to one another and quite a bit higher than the FCC ending balance. Complete budgets for each case are provided in Appendix D.
Family Child For-profit Non-profit Care Center Center Total revenue $40,725.21 $368,640.00 $194,737.20 Total expenses $17,377.26 $333,157.20 $157,053.76 Ending balance $23,347.95 $35,482.80 $37,683.44 Source: Vermont Community Loan Fund, 2008 (electronic mail).
Major sources of revenues include private pay tuitions, child care tuition subsidies, registration deposits, and food program revenue.
Expenses include employees’ salaries, payroll taxes and benefits, food, educational supplies and equipment, cleaning and maintenance, office supplies and equipment, insurance, advertising, field trips and educational activities, transportation, rent, training and employee development, accounting and legal, repairs and maintenance, telephone, monthly loan payments, utilities, allowance for bad debt, vacancy, and miscellaneous other expenses.
Educational Requirements and Attainment
The Child Development Division of The Vermont Department for Children and Families determines the educational requirements of Vermont’s early care and education workforce through the establishment of regulations required to legally operate a child care program. The table below documents the qualifications for Vermont does not positions in center-based programs and family child care homes. In addition to these requirements, all positions (center and family) require a minimum of 12 currently meet the (clock) hours of professional development activities annually. national criterion of requiring its center Vermont ranks high nationally in terms of standards in place for child care directors to have a centers; however, one national criterion it does not meet is requiring its center Bachelor’s degree. directors to have a Bachelor’s degree or higher.
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Table 14 Qualifications for Positions in Center-based and Family Child Care Programs in Vermont Center-based Child Care Programs Position Qualifications Master Teacher Relevant Master’s degree and a minimum of two years of experience Teacher Relevant Bachelor’s degree, which includes one year of experience Teaching Associate Relevant Associate’s Degree; or CDA; or CCV certificate and two years of experience; or professional certification; or three years of experience and four college courses; or certificate from Apprenticeship Program Teaching Assistant High school diploma or equivalent, at least 18 years of age and completion of a relevant 30-hour course, or one college course completed within one year of employment Family Child Care Programs Position Qualifications Family Child Care High school diploma or equivalent, at least 18 Licensee/Program years of age, and a) CDA, certificate from Director Apprenticeship Program, or relevant AA, BA, and b) two years of experience operating a regulated family child care home Family Child Care Over 18 years of age, one year of experience with Assistant young children and one relevant 30-hour course to be completed within one year Source: Child Care Services Division, 2001.
As mentioned earlier, the PPD survey will provide updated information on the educational attainment of the state’s early childhood professionals. Among those early childhood professionals (who work with young children with social/emotional or behavioral challenges) who responded to The Early Childhood and Family Mental Health Survey, more than half of them had a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
In our 1999 study, regarding educational attainment, we learned that:
• Two-thirds (66%) of centers had at least one staff member who had According to our 1999 completed a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood and about one-quarter study, a high school (26%) of centers had at one or more staff members at the Master’s degree was the highest degree (or higher) level. level of education • Among family child care providers, 86% had completed their high completed for the vast school diploma or GED, about one-quarter (26%) had taken some majority of Vermont’s college courses (in early childhood or a related field), and very small family child care percentages had completed Associate’s (7%), Bachelor’s (10%), and providers. Master’s (2%) degrees . 43 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
National estimates are that 33% of center teachers are college graduates, about double the percentages of center assistants (12%) and family child care providers (17%) who have earned college degrees (Center for the Child Care Workforce, 2002).
ECE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM
Vermont’s comprehensive professional development (PD) system for early care and education (ECE) providers is the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center. The Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center is one of 40 state PD systems and one of 14 with a college/university administrative structure. Northern Lights is one of 28 state career registries that are part of the National Registry Alliance (www.registryalliance.org). Funding sources for the system include the Child Development Division, Vermont Agency of Human Services and the Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council.
Table 15 ECE Professional Development Systems in New England Administrative State PD System Partners Structure Vermont Northern College/university CDD, AHS, Lights Career VCCIC Development Center Maine Maine Roads College/University Early Childhood to Quality Division, Office of Child and Family Services, ME DHHS New N/A Hampshire Massachusetts Department of State Agency EEC; United Way Early of Massachusetts Education and Bay and Care (EEC) Merrimack Valley; Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education Rhode Island Childspan ECE PD RI Dept. of Human Organization (i.e., Services and the system is its own Education; U.S. organization) DHHS; other sources Connecticut Connecticut ECE PD No information Charts-A- Organization Course
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The goals for Northern Lights include: • strengthening and aligning curriculum and instruction, • providing individuals and agencies easy access to training and education at all levels, • developing highly qualified instructors, and • making career advising available for professionals and organizations.
Core Competencies
Early Care and Education (ECE) professional development core competencies and child early learning standards are interconnected. Vermont has shown a commitment to the development of core competencies in both ECE and ECE child and family mental health as part of the work of the Northern Lights Career Development Center and the Department of Education. The Vermont professional development system considers core competencies to be the observable skills and dispositions needed by professionals in order to provide high quality care and education to children and their families. Core competencies are concrete, achievable and observable statements. They establish standards of practice that strengthen the profession.
The current ECE Core Competencies were developed in 2005 by the Northern Lights Professional Preparation and Development Committee9 and are based on core knowledge in five content areas:10 • Child Development • Families and Communities • Teaching and Learning • Healthy and Safe Environments • Professionalism and Program Organization
The Vermont Department of Education (DOE) also has detailed ECE clustered competencies for Early Childhood Educators A college student is responsible for meeting all of the knowledge and performance standards and the additional course and student teaching requirements for the ECE endorsement.
9 The Professional Preparation and Development (PPD) Committee formed in 1992 to examine the issues and state of early childhood professional development in Vermont. The committee identified that limited coordination of professional development opportunities, limited knowledge across settings, and limited number of people who had individual professional development plans (IPDPs), were issues to address. The Committee is responsible for The Vermont Guide to Early Childhood Careers, Planning Your Professional Growth, and the conceptual framework and RFP for the Northern Lights Career Development Center. The PPD is a sub-committee of the Building Bright Futures system.
10 Additionally, Vermont has Early Childhood and Family Mental Health Competencies in six core areas at four levels. The Early Childhood and Family Mental Health Practice Group developed these in 2006. http://northernlights.vsc.edu/ecfmh_intro07.pdf.
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There are 10 DOE knowledge and performance standards across ECE areas such as general child growth and development, family systems theory, biological and genetic and familial factors that effect development, implementation of appropriate early childhood curriculum, supportive learning environment , leadership, and arts and creative expression.
Professional Development Planning
All early childhood education students and early care providers seeking professional development within the Child Development Division and Northern Lights system are encouraged to develop an Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) and seek career advising.
In Vermont, career advising about the IPDP is done informally when providers chose a mentor or ECE colleague to work with them. This advisement is available from the Northern Lights Instructor Registry and the Resource Development Specialists. According to three key informants interviewed for this report, center-based providers are more likely to develop a professional development plan than home-based child care providers. Efforts are being made to promote the use of the IPDP and the provider use of the Northern Lights Bright Future Information System for providers.
Professional Development training requirements for registered family child care homes include: • All registered providers are required to take a minimum of 6 hours of training each year to retain registration. Providers are welcome and encouraged to attend more than 6 hours a year. Providers who attend more hours of training report being less stressed and stay in the field longer. • Registered providers must show proof of certification in Infant/Child CPR. Providers must maintain the certification with an annual refresher course. (This is in addition to the 6 hour training requirement.) • Providers who have the Specialized Child Care Status must take 6 additional hours of training in workshops noted as Advanced Specialized Care. • Master Teachers, Teachers, Teaching Associates, and Teaching Assistants must have an Individual Professional Development Plan and a minimum of 12 hours of training each year. • In addition to CPR training. All caregivers shall be knowledgeable in administering basic first aid. At least one staff person who holds a valid certification in Infant/Child CPR shall be present at all times when children are present.
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Career Ladder
The Career Ladder depicted in Table 16 outlines the ECE career requirements at 6 different levels from Level I (entry level) to Level VI (graduate level). Each Career Level combines education and experience. The Career Ladder acknowledges that individuals enter the early childhood profession at different Career Levels and develop in different ways. Vermont Early Childhood Program Licensing Regulations require successful completion of Level I (or equivalent) within one year of employment. The Fundamentals course is offered annually in each region of the state and is advertised as low cost.
Table 16 Vermont Career Ladder Levels I II III IV V VI Education High school Level II A)Vermont A)Bachelor's Master's Doctoral completed diploma or Vermont Child Care degree in degree in degree in GED, or Northern Registered early early early higher Lights Apprenticeship childhood childhood childhood education course Program (18 education or education education degree in an series credits plus 4, related field or related or related unrelated (about 90 000 hours) or field field field with no hours) or CCV's Child early equivalent Care Certificate childhood Child program (24 education Development credits) or courses, and Associate Paraprofessional Fundamentals (CDA) certificate (26 for Early Credential credits) or Childhood Equivalent Professionals B) Associate with VT teaching course (45 degree in early license: early childhood hours) or childhood or early childhood equivalent education (60 special education credits total) endorsement
Experience 1 year 2 or more A) 3 or more 1 or more 3 or more as an early years years years years 3 or more childhood B) 4 or more including including years professional years student student teaching teaching Retrieved from http://northernlights.vsc.edu/career_ladder.html
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EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAMS
Vermont’s early As presented in Table 17, Vermont currently has seven early childhood teacher childhood teacher preparation programs, three at public institutions and four at private schools. In education programs 2006-2007, these programs awarded a total of 41 Associate’s degrees, 19 awarded 41 Bachelor’s degrees, and one Master’s degree.
Associate’s, 19 Further research would need to be undertaken to understand the capacity of these Bachelor’s, and one programs to prepare the state’s ECE workforce. Specifically, future studies Master’s degree in could collect information on student enrollment in these programs (to better 2006-2007. understand what portion of enrolled students earn degrees), information on careers after graduation (to determine what portion of graduates work in the field and in what type of early childhood setting), and the match between program capacity and number of students enrolled (to determine if programs need to attract more students or expand their capacity).
It would also take further research to estimate the demand for early childhood teaching degrees. This area was not explored in our key informant interviews and we are not aware of any existing research that has examined whether the supply of licensed early childhood teachers is adequate to meet the demand in Vermont. In addition to the current production pipeline (i.e., number of degrees awarded and number of certificates awarded), an accurate estimate of supply also includes the qualified reserve pool of early childhood teachers that are not working (and a recruitment rate).
Table 17 Early Childhood Education and Teaching Degrees Earned in Vermont 2006-2007 College Early Childhood Degrees Awarded 2006-2007 Bennington College 0 Master’s degrees (out of 13 degrees Master’s degree in Education) Champlain College 15 Associate’s degrees (out of 15 Associate’s degrees in Education) Community College of Vermont 26 Associate’s degrees (out of 30 Associate’s degrees in Education) Goddard College 1 Bachelor’s degree (out of 4 Bachelor degrees in Education) and 1 Master’s degree (out of 18 Master’s degrees in Education) Lyndon State College 2 Bachelor’s degrees (out of 8 Bachelor’s degrees in Education) Union Institute and University Unknown University of Vermont 16 Bachelor’s degrees* (out of 146 Bachelor’s degrees in Education) Source: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator * 5 of these were in Early Childhood Special Education
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Bennington College http://www.bennington.edu/go/graduate/ma-in-teaching
The Center for Creative Teaching (CCT) at Bennington College offers both a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program and an accelerated Bachelor of Arts/Master of Arts in Teaching (BA/MAT) program. Certification to teach at the early childhood level is available in the MAT program. The Center works closely with the College’s Early Childhood Center. Basic components of the programs include Teaching Seminars, Practice and Reflection, Portfolios, and Standardized Exams.
Champlain College http://www.champlain.edu/Undergraduate-Studies/Majors-and- Programs/Majors-Index/Early-Childhood-Elementary-Education.html
Champlain College offers programs in Early Childhood/ Elementary Education. The College prides itself on its dual endorsement of both early childhood education (birth to age 8) and elementary education (Kindergarten through grade 6).
Community College of Vermont (CCV) http://www.ccv.edu/degree/early_childhood_ed
CCV offers an A.A. in Early Childhood Education. To overcome common barriers to participation, the College offers flexible scheduling and online courses. The program notes that its graduates find employment without difficulty and that they have the option of transferring to four-year colleges, including Goddard College, Lyndon State College, and the University of Vermont.
Locations are in Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, Morrisville, Newport, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, and Springfield Upper Valley. In-state students pay $191 per credit, while out-of-state students pay $382 per credit.
Goddard College http://www.goddard.edu/bachelorarts_education
Goddard offers a B.A. and an M.A. in Education and Licensure. The programs are low residency programs. Students begin each semester with an eight-day residency and then study locally, keeping in touch with their faculty advisors. The programs prepare students to receive a Vermont Initial License in Early Childhood Education (Birth-Age 5).
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Lyndon State College http://www.lyndonstate.edu/ProspectiveStudents/MajorsMinors/OurPrograms/Ed ucationBS/tabid/357/Default.aspx
Lyndon State College offers a B.S. in Education, with a concentration/endorsement available in Early Childhood Education. It is one of the college’s oldest programs. The college is unique in placing students in actual classrooms early in their study, giving early childhood candidates have a total of 509 hours of field experience prior to student teaching. It is also distinct from other Vermont colleges in its integration of regular and special education. An alumni survey showed a perfect job placement rate for graduates of the Education program.
Union Institute and University http://www.myunion.edu/academics/bachelor-of-arts/teacher- licensure/index.html
Union Institute & University Academic Centers in Brattleboro and Montpelier feature a B.A. in Early Childhood Teacher Licensure, approved by the Vermont Department of Education. The Institute also offers a M.Ed. program in Early Childhood that features once-a-term residencies, combined with independent study and online courses. Thirty-six to 48 credits are required, and transfer credits are accepted. Tuition per 3 credit term is $3, 098; Special Learner Status (per credit hour) is $662.
University of Vermont (UVM) http://www.uvm.edu/~ips1/
The UVM program is accredited by both the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). It is affiliated with the Campus Children’s Center, a renowned lab school. Similarly, the faculty members are also becoming noted for their work in documentation of children’s learning as a basis for curriculum planning (based on an international model), and are successful in gaining grant dollars and in presenting their scholarship through both publications and presentations.
The Early Childhood Special Education program is fully accredited by the Council for Exceptional Children, and is nationally recognized for early intervention work with at-risk infants and toddlers. In 2003, the UVM Early Childhood Program established an internship experience in Pistoia, Italy. Early childhood program members have collaborated with colleagues in Italy on several publications related to early childhood education. UVM holds Reggio Conferences each summer and has co-sponsored these with the Pistoia, Italy early education program, Smith College, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDENTIALS AND RELATED PROGRAMS
In addition to its degree programs, Vermont offers five key early care and education credentials. These credentials are widely accepted as indicators of quality care and include the following: • Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Educator and Early Childhood Education licensure, • the Child Development Associate Credential (CDA), • the Vermont Early Childhood and Afterschool Program Director Credential, • Child Care Certificate, and • the Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program.
Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Educator and Early Childhood Education Licenses
Vermont’s regulations require early care and education providers working in public schools to hold state licensure with the Early Childhood Education or the Early Childhood Special Educator and Early Childhood Education endorsement. These requirements were established by the Vermont Standards Board for Professional Educators (VSBPE), approved by the State Board of Education, and are administered by the Vermont Department of Education. There are two well- established programs in Vermont with the goal of increasing the number of early childhood educators with these credentials: the Early Childhood Education and Special Education Program of the Vermont Higher Education Collaborative and the Vermont Early Childhood Educator Licensure Project (VECEL).
Vermont Higher Education Collaborative: Early Childhood Education and Special Education Program http://www.vthec.org/ The Vermont Higher Education Collaborative (VT-HEC) is a partnership VT-HEC’s EC/ECSE between the Department of Education, higher education, and local public schools. Participating higher education institutions include The University of program aims to Vermont, Castleton State College, Johnson State College, and Lyndon State overcome the “distance College. to training” barrier by offering courses in The Early Childhood Education and Special Education (EC/ECSE) Program of regions without nearby VT-HEC has the aim of increasing the number of licensed educators in early teacher training childhood fields. The program is open to educators who possess or are eligible for a Vermont educator license or have a Bachelor's degree in liberal arts or a programs and by related area. Through the program, educators take graduate level courses and offering television and participants then have the option of pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education. online courses. The course fee is $825/course.
The program takes place in selected geographic locations where students would have difficulty accessing on-campus teacher-training programs. Courses are currently offered at three regional locations: St. Johnsbury, Waterbury, and Poultney.
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The program uses a cohort model of 10-15 students each to support peer networks. The program also uses a hybrid of traditional courses and technology – including interactive television courses and online courses – in order to be accessible for working educators.
Vermont Early Childhood Educator Licensure Project (VECEL) http://www.vecel.org/ VECEL exists to increase the number of licensed early childhood teachers working with young children in Vermont. The Vermont Early Childhood Educator Licensure Project (VECEL) began in 2002 with a federal earmark grant. By 2004, 21 early childhood educators had received their licenses. In January 2005, a second group of educators was enrolled and were due to complete the licensure process by early 2007. This project has become an important component of Vermont’s career and professional development continuum, which strives to increase the qualifications and credentials of teachers of young children. Having a licensed teacher in the classroom or other learning environment enables early childhood programs to engage in partnerships with school districts to provide preschool services that qualify for public education funding, and it is a key ingredient in assuring quality experiences for children.
Child Development Associate Credential (CDA)
The Child Development Associate (CDA) is a respected national credential administered by the Council for Professional Recognition in Washington, D.C. This credential is often the first step along the early care and education professional development path. Cuurently, Vermont is one of 14 states where a CDA can be a director (without additional education and/or training).
There are about 15,000 CDA applications annually and more than 200,000 CDAs Two Vermont programs nationally. Eligibility criteria include: help fund providers to • Being 18 years of age or older • receive the CDA, which Holding a high school diploma or GED • Having 480 hours of experience working with children within the five national research has years prior to application linked to salary • Having 120 clock hours of formal child care education within the five increases and pursuit of years prior to application higher education. In Vermont, VACCRRA member agency Resource Development Specialists support CDA credential candidates in their regions. CDA candidates also work with early childhood Advisors who mentor and observe them. (The Northern Lights Career Development Center is in the process of creating a registry that will include CDA Advisors.)
The credential is valid for three years and then may be renewed in five-year increments. Among other criteria, renewal candidates must have at least 4.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or a three-credit-hour course in early childhood education or a related field. The cost for initial application and assessment is $343. Renewal is $69.
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Vermont provides financial assistance for individuals to obtain a CDA Credential through two professional development grants managed by the Child Development Division (and funded through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG): 1. Credential Seeking Bonus grant – to assist with the cost of initial CDA credential fees 2. Credential Achieved Bonus grant – a bonus up to $1000 for Vermont residents who have completed the CDA
Other benefits for Vermont providers to pursue this credential include earning points in Vermont’s quality program rating system (STARS) and reaching Level II in Vermont’s Northern Lights professional development career ladder. The Community College of Vermont (CCV)–Bennington operates a CDA preparation program, which allows participants to meet the requirements while providing them with supervision and support. The program offers opportunities to receive credit for previous coursework as well as to apply credit toward an Associate’s degree.
Nationally, nearly two-thirds of CDAs are endorsed in a preschool setting, followed by the infant/toddler setting (25%), family child care setting (11%), and home visitor setting (1%). In 2004, six in ten educators did not have to pay for their CDA, but there appeared then a trend toward CDAs receiving less financial assistance.
Research has shown the CDA has an impact on individual’s careers and professional development. Educators with CDAs are increasingly likely to receive salary increases and to obtain college credit and continue to pursue higher education: • 51% of CDAs received salary increases after earning their credential, and • 45% received college credit for some or all of their CDA training.
The Vermont Early Childhood and Afterschool Program Director Credential
The Vermont Early Childhood and Afterschool Program Director Credential is a three-step sequence of college courses (21 total credits) for center-based and family child care directors or prospective directors. More than 33 directors/potential directors in Vermont have received this credential.
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Child Care Certificate
The Community College of Vermont offers a 24-credit child care certificate program to prepare students for the work in the childcare industry. Many of the certificate courses are applicable to CDA documentation and can also be applied to CCV early childhood education degrees. In-state students pay $191 per credit plus fees. Local CCV campuses include: • Bennington • Brattleboro • Burlington • Middlebury • Montpelier • Morrisville • Newport • Rutland • St. Albans • St. Johnsbury • Springfield • Upper Valley • Waterbury • Online learning is also available.
The Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program
The Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council (VCCICC) has sponsored and organized ECE apprenticeships since 2000.11 This apprenticeship program is a model from the workforce industries. Vermont Department of Labor Workforce Development provides services to Employers and Jobseekers, including oversight for the Registered Apprenticeship Programs in Vermont.
According to key informants, this model works best with providers working in center-based Early Childhood Programs where an apprentice has 4,000 hours under the guidance of a mentor, usually the center director. To date, 34 apprentices have completed the Apprenticeship and approximately 30 others are currently in the apprenticeship program.
11 VCCICC’ s mission is to support Vermont’s children, families, communities, schools and businesses by promoting the highest quality child care for young and school age children through the recruitment, development, mentoring and retention of qualified child care professionals. VCCICC works to enhance the knowledge, skills and status of child care providers by offering the Apprenticeship Program and other professional development activities; advocating for salaries commensurate with expertise; and collaborating, coordinating and linking with other leaders and organizations in order to build quality and sustain growth of the child care industry. (Retrieved September 2008 from http://www.vtchildcareindustry.org/)
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All Vermont registered Apprentices & Mentors work in full day/full year regulated child care programs. The Child Care Apprenticeship Program has had a variety of funders since 2000, including federal and state grants and contributions from private philanthropy (e.g., A.D. Henderson Foundation). Participation is clustered in the North and East parts of the state. Chittenden County has the largest number of participants.
THE VERMONT ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CARE RESOURCE AND REFERRAL AGENCIES (VACCRRA)
Another key component of the professional development system is the Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (VACCRRA) an agency that is community-based and most accessible to local ECE providers. There are 12 Child Care Research and Referral Agencies in Vermont (listed earlier in this report) and 847 nationwide. The VACCRRA member agencies support the quality professional development of ECE providers. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) is the parent agency of VACCRRA.
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From July 2007 through June 2008, Vermont agencies provided 876 trainings, 23,563 phone consultations and 1,022 visits to child care settings. The scope and amount of professional development offered varies across the regional VACCRA sites. On average, half of the training provided by VACCRRA member agencies are workshops, about three in ten trainings are part of a series, and two in ten are Of 876 VACCRRA courses. trainings provided in 2007-2008, Table 19 50% were Ratio of Training to Programs, by VACCRA Region workshops, 27% VACCRRA Region % workshops % series % courses were series, and Addison 34% 44% 22% 23% were courses. Bennington 88% 8% 4% Caledonia/Essex (South) 48% 30% 22% Chittenden 47% 24% 29% Franklin/Grand Isle 48% 28% 24% Lamoille 38% 38% 24% Orange/Windsor 61% 15% 24% Orleans/Essex (North) 68% 21% 11% Rutland 49% 24% 27% Washington 46% 35% 19% Windham (So.) 70% 30% 0% Windsor (So.)/Windham (No.) 61% 23% 16% TOTAL 50% 27% 23% Source: VACCRRA, 2008.
The table below shows the trainings to programs ratio for each VACCRRA region for FY 2007, denoting the proportional amount of training relative to the number of child care programs in the region. Addison, Bennington, and Chittenden regions did the most training relative to their ECE base, while Washington, Windsor, and Orleans had considerably lower ratios.
Table 20 Ratio of Training to Programs, by VACCRA Region VACCRRA Region # Programs # Trainings Trainings:Programs Addison 99 61 62% Addison, Bennington 106 64 60% Bennington, and Chittenden 359 210 58% Chittenden top the Franklin/Grand Isle 216 122 56% VACCRRA Caledonia/Essex (South) 112 63 56% member agency Lamoille 99 53 54% list in terms of the Orange/Windsor 113 54 48% ratio of training to Rutland 116 55 47% Windham (So.) 101 46 46% child care Washington 200 72 36% programs. Windsor (So.)/Windham (No.) 76 20 26% Orleans/Essex (North) 97 19 20% TOTAL 1,744 876 50% Source: VACCRRA, 2008.
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As Table 21 shows, the average number of participants across all VACCRRA trainings in Vermont was 15. These data indicate that Windsor (So.)/Windham (No.) has the largest trainings, on average, and Windham (So.) has the smallest.
Table 21 Ratio of Training to Programs, by VACCRA Region Total # Total # Avg. # Participants VACCRRA Region Participants Trainings per Training Windsor (So.)/Windham (No.) 631 20 32 Orange/Windsor 1,251 54 23 Rutland 1,036 55 19 Chittenden 3,739 210 18 Bennington 1,017 64 16 Addison 913 61 15 Washington 1,010 72 14 Caledonia/Essex (South) 859 63 14 Orleans/Essex (North) 259 19 14 Lamoille 681 53 13 Franklin/Grand Isle 1,526 122 13 Windham (So.) 502 46 11 TOTAL 13,424 876 15 Source: VACCRRA, 2008.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
As explained earlier, center-based and family child care early care and education providers are required to obtain a minimum of 12 (clock) hours of professional development activities annually. In this section of the report, we describe four of the state’s well-established activities through which providers can meet their professional development requirement: • the Building Blocks for Literacy program, sponsored by the Stern Center for Language and Literacy, • the Mother Goose Cares Programs, sponsored by the Vermont Center for the Book, • the Never too Early program of the Vermont Humanities Council, and • the Start with the Arts program of Very Special Arts.
All of these programs operate on soft money. They have all been in operation for a number of years, indicating that a considerable amount of staff time and energy goes into seeking funds from new and existing funders.
In addition to Vermont’s already popular professional development activities listed above, at the end of this section, we describe a promising new initiative, Foundations for Early Learning.
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BUILDNG BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® http://sterncenter.org/
Program Description BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® is a research-based literacy course for early childhood professionals, one of many professional development courses and events for educators offered by the Stern Center for Language and Learning. The BUILDING BLOCKS curriculum is based on recommendations from the National Research Council and focuses on the emergent literacy skills of two-to- five year olds, including phonological awareness, vocabulary and grammar development, shared book reading, and the speech-to-print connection. Training consists of a two-day course followed by six months of mentorship.
Funding Foundation support, including that of the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Turrell Fund, has enabled the Stern Center to offer BUILDING BLOCKS training to early care and education providers at no cost. (The Center’s professional development catalogue prices the course at $250.) The program has also received support from the Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children, and a recent $100,000 grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation is being used to develop a BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® web site. The web site will deliver a professional certification course as well as an undergraduate course, allowing the program to expand internationally.
Course Availability and Attendance Since 1997, more than 1,000 educators (representing about 20,000 children) have participated in the BUILDING BLOCKS program. According to the Bright Futures Child Care Information System, the Building Blocks for Literacy professional development program has been offered once a year over the last three years – in Killington in 2006, in Colchester in 2007, and in Montpelier in 2008.
Program Evaluation/Research The Stern Center’s research program evaluated the BUILDING BLOCKS program in its third year and found that children whose providers received BUILDING BLOCKS training had better emergent literacy outcomes than did a control group of children whose providers did not receive training (Stern Center for Language and Learning).
Mother Goose Programs http://www.mothergooseprograms.org/index.php
Program Description Mother Goose Programs™ are the “public persona” of the Vermont Center for the Book, a non-profit tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) corporation begun in 1985. One component of the Mother Goose Programs – the Mother Goose Cares programs – are college-level professional development courses for educators who work with children from birth to age seven, including early childhood educators and child
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care providers. There are three Mother Goose Cares programs, two geared toward literacy and one for math and science:
1. Mother Goose Cares about Social Studies 2. Mother Goose Cares about the Early Years 3. Mother Goose Cares About Math and Science
Mother Goose professional development is offered by trained instructors.12 In addition to these programs for caregivers, Mother Goose also offers booklists, free activities, and other resources.
Mother Goose has no specific affiliations with Vermont’s institutions of higher education; however, according to Mother Goose staff, all Vermont colleges/universities accept credits received for the Mother Goose professional development course.
The Mother Goose Cares programs are based on nationally-recognized standards, created by the National Council for the Social Studies, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Research Council, Head Start Bureau, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and leading experts in the language and literacy field. The math and science curriculum has been developed with the guidance of an advisory panel of top scientists, mathematicians and educators in the United States.
Funding The Vermont Center for the Book is funded by the National Science Foundation, Jane’s Trust of Boston, the A.D. Henderson Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, the State of Vermont, and private individuals. The Informal Science Education program of the NSF Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings funded Mother Goose Cares about Math and Science in the amount of $1,581,189.13 This award was to reach 600 childcare workers in Vermont and inner-city Philadelphia over a three-year period.
Jane’s Trust of Boston funded Mother Goose professional development in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts through the New England Professional Development Initiative (NEPDI). The project featured a “cascade” approach to professional development, wherein experts provided professional development to university faculty and early care and education providers who then trained other early care and education providers. They also trained other faculty and ECE providers to be trainers. The project was expected to reach 900 early care and education providers, representing over 7,000 children. Demand for the courses was reportedly high, with little or no attrition.
12 Four Mother Goose trainers are currently listed in the Northern Lights Professional Development Instructor registry. http://northernlights.vsc.edu/instructor-registry/index
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Mother Goose sponsors (e.g., local child care centers) are required to match course funding with $2,000. Mother Goose staff report this is sometimes challenging for the sponsors and that, occasionally, the sponsoring agency will charge each participant a $25 registration fee to help offset the match.
Course Availability and Attendance Mother Goose Programs are used in more than 30 states. In Vermont, the Mother Goose Cares professional development programs have been offered eight times in the last three years, in various parts of the state. Mother Goose Cares about Math and Science counts as Level II professional development in the Northern Lights Career Ladder, with course participants receiving six clock hours.
Table 22 Mother Goose Care Programs Offered in Vermont 2006-2009 Program Sponsor Location Year offered Mother Goose Bennington Bennington 2006 Cares about County Child Math and Care Association Science The Family Richford 2006 Center of Northwestern VT Addison County Middlebury 2007 Child Care Services Lamoille Family Morrisville 2009 Center Mother Goose Addison County Middlebury 2008 Cares about the Child Care Early Years Services The Family St. Albans 2008 Center of Northwestern VT Mother Goose Bennington Arlington 2007 Cares about County Child Social Studies Care Association Mother Goose Mother Goose Montpelier 2007 Cares about Programs Math, Science, and Social Studies Source: Bright Futures Child Care Information System, http://www.brightfutures.dcf.state.vt.us.
Over the past three years, nearly 600 early childhood professionals from various settings have taken the Mother Goose professional development courses (see Table 23) and 166 educators took the course for college credit (Table 24). The cost per credit is $98. According to Mother Goose staff, there are waiting lists for the courses, and there are typically a few wait-listed individuals per course.
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Table 23 Number of Mother Goose Professional Development Course Participants, by Type of Participant Number of participants Child care homes 226 Child care centers 225 Public school 90 Head Start 28 Total 569 Source: Telephone interview/email follow up with Mother Goose staff, September 2008.
Table 24 Number of Mother Goose Professional Development Course Participants Who Took the Courses for Credit Number of participants Undergraduates 74 Graduates 92 Total 166 Note: Social Studies and Math and Science courses are two to three credits; Early Years course is one credit. Source: Telephone interview/email follow up with Mother Goose staff, September 2008.
In addition to Mother Goose Cares professional development, the program also has local community-based teams that offer child care trainings and materials to educators and librarians based on the Mother Goose Asks Why? and the What’s the Big Idea? programs. Mother Goose outreach to encourage participation in the trainings has reportedly been met with good response. Table 25 shows that a little more than 100 providers have taken part in these trainings over the last three years.
Table 25 Number of Mother Goose Community-based Child Care Training Participants, by Type of Participant Number of participants Early Childhood Educators 85 Librarians 27 Total 112 Source: Telephone interview/email follow up with Mother Goose staff, September 2008.
Program Evaluation/Research An evaluation of the program showed that the curriculum and materials are easy to use, relevant and current, and reflect best practice in instructional design (RMC Research Corporation, 2004). During the three-year evaluation period (2001-2004), Mother Goose Cares about Math and Science served nearly 600 providers. (This number includes providers in inner-city Philadelphia who participated in the study.)
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In terms of outcomes, the evaluation found that educators who successfully implemented Mother Goose Cares About Math and Science applied what they learned in the program and used nearly three times as many math and science activities in their daily work with children than they had before the program. Children in the care of these educators demonstrated greater knowledge of math, science and literacy concepts.
Educators trained in Mother Goose Cares About Social Studies showed increased frequency of teaching social studies standards, increased competence in introducing social studies, language and literacy-based explorations, and more frequent communications with families, a critical component of effective education.
Never Too Early http://www.vermonthumanities.org/index_files/n2e.htm
Program Description Never Too Early (NTE) is a program of the Vermont Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit organization founded in 1974 and an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Begun in 1996 and expanded significantly in 2002 with an A.D. Henderson foundation grant, NTE is a free, humanities-based literacy training for early care and education providers.
Course Availability and Attendance As seen in Table 26, Never Too Early programs have been offered on a regular basis throughout the state since 2005. Some of these offerings have met the requirements of the Level II classes required by the Vermont Career Ladder. Course participants receive two clock hours for each course session.
VHC coordinates with the Resource Development Specialists at local child care resource and referral agencies to schedule and publicize the trainings via calendars/newsletters, direct flyers to related programs, and through the Bright Futures Information System. The majority of NTE courses are held at the sponsor agencies; some are held at “networks,” at a larger childcare center, or at a Head Start training conference. According to program staff, the current number of trainings seems to adequately meet the need among new and returning providers; however, program staff comment that “there are many ‘repeat’ NTE participants who would come every year if there was room (and funding for it) – they love the program, getting the free books, sharing new ideas, and being in this supportive environment” (Telephone interview with Never Too Early staff, 2008).
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Table 26 Never Too Early Programs Offered in Vermont 2005-2009 Sponsor Location(s) Never Too Advanced Early NTE Addison County Child Care Middlebury 2005 (2) 2005 Services 2006 (2) 2006 2007 2008 Bennington County Child Arlington, Bennington, 2005 (2) 2007 Care Association Shaftsbury 2006 2008 2007 (3) 2008 (2) 2009 Child Care Project* Hartford, Out of State (NH) 2005 2008 2006 (2) 2009 2007 (2) (Out of state 2009 (2) only) Child Care Resource Williston 2005 (3) 2007 2006 (5) 2007 (5) 2008 (4) 2009 Child Care Support Services Brandon, Castleton, Rutland 2005 2009 @ VAC 2006 (4) 2007 (3) 2008 (2) 2009 Family Center of Barre City, Montpelier 2005 Washington County 2006 2007 2008 2009 Lamoille Family Center Belvedere, Cambridge, 2006 (2) Hardwick, Morrisville 2007 (5) 2009 Lyndonville Child Care Lyndon 2006 Network NEKCA Child Care Support Derby, Newport 2006 Agency 2007 (2) 2008 2009 Springfield Area Parent Springfield 2005 (2) 2006 Child Center 2006 2007 (2) 2008 (2) 2009 The Family Center of St. Albans 2006 Northwestern VT 2008 Umbrella St. Johnsbury 2005 2007* 2006 (2) 2008 Windham Child Care Brattleboro, Dummerston 2005 (2) 2006 Association* 2006 (2) 2007 2007 (2) 2008 (2) 2008 (2) 2009 2009 Source: Bright Futures Child Care Information System, http://www.brightfutures.dcf.state.vt.us. * Counts toward the CDD annual professional development requirement and meets the requirements of the Level II pathway required classes. 63 GOODMAN RESEARCH GROUP, INC. March 2009
According to Never Too Early program records, there were 360 unique participants at NTE trainings that took place in FY 2007-2008 and an additional 110 providers attended a NTE training at a Stern Center conference. For the most part, Advanced Never Too Early course participants have already attended the basic Never Too Early course.
Table 27 Number of Never Too Early Course Participants 2007-2008, by Type of Participant Number of participants Child care homes 179 Child care centers 136 Head Start 44 Total 359 Note: Numbers are for NTE workshops only and do not include Advanced NTE. Source: Telephone interview/email follow up with Never Too Early staff, September 2008.
In addition to the courses, sponsoring agencies also make home visits to child care providers, as described below by a VHC informant. In FY 2007-2008, VHC staff made a total of 171 visits to 69 different child care providers.
“Many child care providers who need early literacy training and resources are home-based providers who may have less experience or education than center-based providers. They often care for very needy children in economically disadvantaged and rural areas of the state. VHC contracts with Vermont’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to make home visits to take early literacy training and books to the providers and children identified as most in need. During three visits, each provider receives six books and resource materials. Visitors work directly with the children and model developmentally appropriate practices” (Telephone interview with Never Too Early staff, 2008).
The work of the Never Too Early is interwoven with the family based literacy program Read with Me. In FY 2007-2008, 433 parents attended the NTE Open House or a Read with Me workshop.
Funding The NTE workshops are free to child care providers. NTE is the largest VHC program, with the largest budget, and it takes considerable staff time and energy to sustain the program. The Henderson Foundation currently funds 60% ($86,250) of the program; the remainder comes from funds that VHC raises through other grants and their annual appeal. VHC was awarded an “Early Reading Success” grant from the VT Department of Education for the coming year. To sustain the program, VHC will pursue funding from the state government, corporations, and foundations with a special interest in literacy.
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Program Evaluation/Research We are not aware of any formal program evaluation or research on NTE. However, NTE staff report that they collect participant narratives that reflect on NTE outreach and its impact. According to these narratives, because family home providers are not required to take an introductory course, NTE is often the first opportunity they have to learn about early literacy,
Start with the Arts http://www.vsavt.org/education/start-with-the-arts/
Program Description VSA Arts of Vermont (VSAVT) is a not-for-profit arts and education organization and a member of the international network of VSA Arts. Start with the Arts is an education program of VSAVT that has accompanying professional development training. The program uses drama, music, dance and visual arts to help children relate to books and stories.
Participation About 48 family child care homes annually, across the state of Vermont, receive 12 hours of Start with the Arts instruction. This earns them a year’s worth of credit toward their required Core Competencies in Teaching and Learning.
Funding Thirteen funders are listed on the Start with the Arts web site and additional funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Education through the national VSA office.
• A.D. Henderson Foundation • Children’s Trust Fund ($15,000 in FY 2007) • Chittenden Bank • Fairpoint Communications • Golub Corporation • Lisa Steele • New Visions Foundation • Paterson Private Family Foundation • Ronald McDonald House Charities • Samuel & Rae Eckman Foundation • Turrell Fund ($9,000 in FY 2007) • Verizon Foundation • VSA national network
Program Evaluation/Research The national VSA arts web site references a national program evaluation of Start with the Arts that was completed in June 1997. No further information is available online.
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Foundations for Early Learning http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/states/vt_foundations.pdf
Program Description Vermont’s Foundations for Early Learning (FEL) is a five-year program, just begun in summer 2008, to train early care and education providers in social- emotional development and early language and literacy learning. FEL is a regional train-the-trainer’s model. Trainers complete a five-day FEL training institute and then build capacity at demonstration sites at the local level, with the goal of creating local learning communities.
Vermont is one of eight CSEFEL (The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning at Vanderbilt University) states. CSEFEL is a national resource center funded by the Office of Head Start and Child Care Bureau with the goal of promoting the social emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age 5. Vermont’s FEL State Leadership Team includes representatives from CDD, CUPS, DOE, FITP, Head Start, HBKF, Northern Lights, UVM, and VPIC.
CSEFEL practices have been crosswalked with national standards, including those of the National Association of the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC), the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children’s (DEC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Public Health Association (APHA), and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education.
Participation The state had its first FEL Institute in July 2008. Sixty people attended, were trained on the CSEFEL and CELL (Center for Early Literacy Learning) curricula, and will be training/coaching demonstration sites in the Northeast Kingdom. Currently, the project is organized to serve one region in each of five years.
Funding Vermont’s Foundations for Early Learning (FEL) project capitalizes on two technical assistance grants, one from CSEFEL and the other from CELL.
Program Evaluation/Research In the survey of Vermont’s early childhood professionals who work with young children with social/emotional or behavioral challenges, 93% of them wanted more knowledge and skills in working with these children, and 72% were interested in earning a credential in this area. Research has shown that social emotional development is linked to school success (Raver, 2002). Specifically, social emotional competence in young children is a predictor of their first grade academic success (Raver and Knitzer, 2002). CSEFEL’s work is based on the well-evaluated Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children.
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Vermont Public Television (VPT) in ECE http://www.vpt.org/townschool/ready.html VPT participates in the early childhood initiative, Ready to Learn. One component of the station’s participation is sponsoring professional development workshops around the state to enhance educators’ competence in supporting healthy child development and school readiness. At the time of this report, VPT was offering six different workshops. The one to four hour workshops are offered at no cost. As far as we know, the workshops have not been evaluated.
BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
“A comprehensive analysis of the professional development challenges facing the early childhood field should be considered as a collaborative effort involving professional organizations and representatives from the wide array of training institutions that prepare individuals to work with young children and their families.” — Recommendation 11, From Neurons to Neighborhoods
The charitable foundations in Vermont that commissioned this study are keenly interested in supporting the professional development of ECE providers and want to understand providers’ challenges to participation in professional development. How interested in professional development are Vermont ECE providers? What is their motivation to pursue training? What are their professional development Distance to training is a goals, what are the barriers to achieving these goals, and what supports would salient barrier to help? What are their preferred methods for receiving professional development? participation in Vermont does not have the answers to these questions yet. However, the professional development forthcoming PPD committee survey results will provide them. in Vermont, requiring some providers to drive In the meantime, in our key stakeholder interviews, Vermont ECE experts focused on three challenges to participation in professional development: 1-3 hours to take advantage of popular 1. First, they cited distance to professional development as perhaps the programs in the state. most salient barrier to participation. This is an especially unique challenge for rural and remote child care providers compared to their urban counterparts. Take Maureen Rainault, for example, a child care provider in Guildhall in Essex county. Maureen would have had a one- and-a-half-hour drive to the (one) Building Blocks training in 2008, in Montpelier. She would have had a nearly three-hour commute to the Mother Goose Cares about the Early Years program in Middlebury.
2. Key stakeholders also explained that the level of training offered by Vermont’s professional development programs deters some providers from participating. They felt that Vermont was strong in basic professional development but lacked adequate opportunities for intermediate and advanced training. This is evident in looking at the Never Too Early programs offered in Vermont in 2008. Of the 11
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agencies that sponsored the basic training, only 4 followed it up with advanced training. 3. Finally, stakeholders reported that there is confusion among providers regarding Vermont’s still relatively new professional development system and its implementation.
The PPD committee survey also explored these other potential barriers to professional development participation in Vermont: • prohibitive costs and/or lack of financial support, • lack of child care for their own children while they attend professional development, • inconvenient times (including conflicts with a full-time work schedule), • lack of opportunities to progress from one degree to another (e.g., Associate’s to Bachelor’s), and • lack of opportunities to receive credit for previous coursework.
As the recommendation opening this section, from the groundbreaking From Neurons to Neighborhoods (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000) suggests, there is a dearth of literature on ECE professional development challenges. In one published study we were able to find, of a statewide professional development survey in Missouri, the most significant hurdles to training were distance to training and inconvenient scheduling and (Gable and Halliburton, 2003). Both of these obstacles were moderately important to providers. In contrast, not being compensated to attend training was less important to providers. The authors speculate that this may be due to the state’s requirement of 12 clock hours of professional development activities annually – the same requirement that Vermont has of its providers.
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PRIORITY ROLES OF INVESTMENT BY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS IN ECE
The primary audience for the priority roles of investment that follow in the next section of this report include the A.D. Henderson Foundation, the Permanent Fund for the Well-being of Vermont’s Children, and the Turrell Fund. Other key stakeholders wish to remain anonymous. Before putting forth recommendations, we present a brief profile of the funders and suggest considerations for their process of collaborative philanthropy.
PROFILE OF THE FUNDERS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE COLLABORATION
At this point in time, this group of foundations can best be characterized as loosely associated around their common concern about the well-being of Vermont’s children.14 From this point on, the group will need to decide how collaboratively they will work together to address the priority recommendations (or other gaps in early care and education services) put forth in this report. The group will need to consider its leadership model, its grantmaking model (i.e., whether it will be a consolidated grantmaking program, individual grants, or a hybrid model), how often they meet, how they will share information and ideas, what their respective levels of commitment will be, and how they will stay abreast of new developments in Vermont’s early care and education system. We imagine the group may be supported in this work by the Vermont Community Foundation, which managed the pooled funds for this study.
We recommend the funders develop a logic model to guide their grantmaking. This would assist the group in identifying the resources they will commit to their grantmaking, the specific activities that will be accomplished with the resources, and how Vermont’s early care and education system and its participants are expected to benefit from the grantmaking, in the short-, intermediate-, and long- term.
This report identifies the challenges inherent in Vermont’s early care and education system and advances recommendations regarding funding priorities. Acting on the findings of this report (in the context of the funders’ vision and expertise) will require strategic planning, including further dialogue with Vermont’s early care and education leaders and a well-developed work plan. It will also require flexibility as the early care and education policy and program climate is subject to political and economic changes.
14 Current collaborative funding includes (but may not be limited to) the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative and Vermont Mentoring Partnerships.
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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
What follows are recommended strategic objectives and related recommendations for the group of funders. They are based on gaps identified in our study and consideration of the potential impact of small grants.
Objective #1: Increase the Supply of High-Quality Infant and Toddler Child Care
There is ample evidence of Vermont’s shortage of high-quality infant and toddler care. One of the pressures cited by the Child Development Division of the Department for Children and Families in the Agency of Human Services 2007 Annual Report is that the demand for regulated child care exceeds the supply. The Child Care 2005 Legislative Report from the Vermont Child Care Advisory Board also advanced a Capacity Recommendations for FY 2006 to increase the number of placements available, particularly for infant-toddler care. The Board estimated it would cost $795,000, although this included additional placements for school-age children and children with special needs as well.
The Child Development Division estimates the overall capacity in regulated child care can meet only 50%-60% of the estimated need in Vermont. An estimated 13,531 children under the age of 3 live with working parents, compared to an estimated 4,771 licensed child care slots for infants and toddlers. In addition, the percentage of referral requests from parents for infant care are four times the percentage of licensed/registered infant care slots, according to the Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Only 14% of providers serve infants.
VACCRRA member agencies report that the number one challenge, faced by 50% of parents, is a lack of available care. According to follow-up feedback from a sample of parents, more than one-third (35%) of them did not find child care in 2007.
Recommendation: Increase the Number of Licensed Infant/Toddler Child Care Slots through Recruitment/Training Grants There are two ways the shortage of high-quality infant and toddler care could be addressed. One way is to increase the number of licensed infant and toddler child care slots. The philanthropic foundations could initiate a grant program to allow resource and referral agencies to recruit and train family child care providers to help meet the demand for child care, in particular infant and toddler care. Funding could be strategically placed in areas where demand most outstrips supply. Additional matching funds for such an effort could be leveraged through a public-private partnership.
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One example of such a program is The California Child Care Initiative Project (CCIP) Matching Grant program, which has been replicated in Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon. This initiative focused first on licensed family child care providers and then expanded to reach out to and support unregulated care providers. The grants specifically support local resource and referral agencies to provide staff development in early care and education to the ECE providers. The outcomes of the initiative are impressive in terms of the number of new family child care providers recruited and trained and the resulting number of new licensed child care slots available to families.
Recommendation: Improve the Quality of Existing Infant/Toddler Care through FFN-Child Care Center Relationships The second strategy to address the shortage is to improve the quality of existing infant and toddler care. Given that most infants and toddlers in child care in Vermont are cared for by family, friends, and neighbors (FFN), improving the quality of such care could arguably have the biggest impact.
A promising program identified in our research was the Community Connections project in Illinois, which creates relationships between FFN providers and center-based programs. This initiative is funded by a partnership of philanthropic organizations and government agencies.
The specific components of this model include monthly information and training sessions (which provide opportunities for training on specific curricula), access to curricular materials and supplies, home visits, joint parent meetings/conferences, and joint field trips.
Prior to investing in FFN care strategies, the funders group may wish to know more about the characteristics of family, friend, and neighbor caregivers in Vermont, including their background in early childhood education, their expressed needs regarding the care they provide, and their feedback about strategies to reach out to and support them.
There are few models for such research, with only a few surveys conducted to date, so any efforts in this area would likely garner attention from other states and early care and education funders and stakeholders. A FFN provider survey would also present an opportunity to learn about the effectiveness of the current A.D. Henderson Foundation-funded FFN outreach activities.
Objective #2: Increase the College Credentials of the Early Care and Education Workforce
In the year before this study was undertaken, five higher education institutions in Vermont prepared only 54 students for the early care and education workforce through the awarding of early childhood degrees. The vast majority of these were at the Associate’s degree level. Further, licensure and apprenticeship initiatives in the state deal with relatively small cohorts (e.g., 20-30 individuals).
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Recommendation: Increase College Credentials through a Higher Education Scholarship Program Increasing the college credentials of the ECE workforce could be accomplished through a scholarship program to promote higher education for early childhood providers. A model is the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project, which is active in 22 states. The project provides scholarships to regulated providers and, in doing so, encourages early childhood programs to support the education of their staff. The scholarship requires a one year commitment to child care after the scholarship year.
The theory behind this initiative is that increased education leads to increased compensation that, in turn, reduces staff turnover, thus providing young children with more consistent and higher quality care. The funders would want to consult or collaborate with the Vermont Higher Education Collaborative (VT-HEC), the Vermont Early Childhood Educator Licensure Project (VECEL), and the Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program on a scholarship program.
As a first step, the funders should consider surveying Vermont’s early childhood higher education programs to build on the basic descriptive information provided in this report and learn more about the program, faculty, and student characteristics. Vermont was not included in a report on a national survey of early childhood teacher preparation programs conducted by the National Prekindergarten Center in 2004, either because it had fewer than five early childhood teacher preparation programs at the time or because it did not have an adequate response rate. The programs in Vermont include: 4. Bennington College (graduate) 5. Champlain College (undergraduate) 6. Community College of Vermont (undergraduate) 7. Goddard College (undergraduate and graduate) 8. Lyndon State College (undergraduate and post baccalaureate) 9. University of Vermont (undergraduate and post baccalaureate) 10. Union Institute and University (undergraduate, post baccalaureate, and graduate)
Objective #3: Increase Child Care Providers’ Access to Professional Development Activities
Our study noted distance to professional development as perhaps the most salient barrier child care providers face in participating in professional development activities. To effectively negotiate this challenge, Vermont needs to continue to build on the varied strategies of it teacher preparation programs, including hosting higher education opportunities in regions without college campuses and utilizing online courses.
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Recommendation: Advocate, investigate, and support efforts to utilize technology in professional development in order to increase outreach and access to training. The Heads up! Reading program of the National Head Start Association is a model for professional development in remote areas. The 10-hour per month research-based college course on early literacy delivered via satellite television to child care centers. The program counts toward Continuing Education Units, the Child Development Associate, and even an online Associate’s degree from the University of Cincinnati's Early Childhood Learning Community.
An evaluation of HeadsUp! Reading demonstrated program effectiveness; the quality of the classroom environments of the program participants outstripped that of the control group, and children’s literacy skills improved more in the “treatment” classrooms than in the control classrooms (Jackson et al., 2006). The average cost of installing the HeadsUp! Network system is $350.
Recommendation: Fund advanced training of promising programs. In addition to basic training, Vermont providers need access to advanced professional development opportunities. Funders could start by investing in advanced training for the state’s well-established Never Too Early program. Our study indicates that seven agencies that offer basic training do not currently have an advanced option. Investigating the reasons behind this discrepancy would be a first step prior to planning for advanced training.
Objective #4: Support the Social/Emotional Skills Professional Development of Child Care Providers
In light of the research linking social emotional development to early academic success, we encourage private philanthropy to invest in social/emotional professional development on par with their focus on literacy. Early care and education providers are important gatekeepers of young children’s social emotional development, yet many in Vermont do not feel prepared to address children’s needs in this area. One of the very few available early childhood professional development needs assessment findings is that Vermont professionals want more knowledge and skills in working with children with social, emotional, or behavioral challenges and their families, and they are interested in earning a credential that recognizes their knowledge and skills in this area.
Recommendation: Increase the Pace and Reach of the State’s Foundations of Early Learning Institutes We recommend that the funders group investigate enhancing the FEL initiative so that it reaches more early childhood professionals and in a shorter amount of time. Currently, the project is organized to serve one region in each of five years, with 60 people having attended the first Institute.
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For all of these recommendations, we urge the funders group to not stop at funding but be present to facilitate connections and make sure their projects succeed, to have their projects evaluated so as to add to the knowledge base about what works, and to learn together with other states and philanthropic and charitable foundations concerned with early care and education.
Finally, while Vermont has strengths in terms of its early care and education data, there are some significant deficiencies mentioned in this report. Vermont has not been through a formal supply and demand study; the state lacks information on the type of care currently used by parents and types of care parents prefer (including FFN care); there is no available data on the ages of children in registered family child care homes; Vermont has not examined the validity of its quality rating system and does not have information about parents’ awareness of STARS; and the state is in need of updated information on characteristics of its ECE workforce and the capacity of its higher education institutions to prepare the state’s ECE workforce. While we do not necessarily advocate that private philanthropy take the lead with collecting these data, we nonetheless note future research that would be useful for supporting early care and education in the state.
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Brown-Lyons, M., Robertson, A., Layzer, J. (2001). Kith and kin —informal child care: Highlights from recent research. National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_377.pdf
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Children and Family Council for Prevention Programs (Prevention Committee), Vermont Agency of Human Services. October 2008 meeting minutes. Retrieved from http://humanservices.vermont.gov/boards-committees/cfcpp/meeting- packets/november-2008/meeting-minutes/
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Jackson, B., Larzelere, R., St. Clair, L., Corr, M., Fichter, C., and Egertson, H. (2006). The impact of HeadsUp! Reading on early childhood educators’ literacy practices and preschool children's literacy skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(2), 213-226.
Kreader, J. L., Ferguson, D., Lawrence, S. (2005). Infant and toddler child care arrangements. National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_628.pdf
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National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). (2009). We can do better: NACCRRA’s ranking of state child care center regulations and oversight. Retrieved from http://www.naccrra.org/policy/recent_reports/docs/WCDB09/state-pages.pdf
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Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. Jack P. Shonkoff and Deborah A. Phillips, eds. Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
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Teachout, S. (2007). Basic needs budgets and the livable wage. State of Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office. Retrieved from http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo/Reports/2007%20Basic%20Needs%20Budgets.pdf
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APPENDICES
Appendix A: Rate of Vermont Children Birth to Five Living with Working Parents
Appendix B: Need for Child Care by Vermont County
Appendix C: Child Care Providers Salaries across Major State Areas
Appendix D: Complete Provider Case Study Budgets
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Appendix A Need for Child Care in Vermont Compared to New England States and U.S. VT RI MA NH ME CT US Under 6 37,702 72,235 442,877 88,084 81,334 247,176 23,292,733 Both parents in labor force 18,113 29,951 195,151 39,050 33,410 103,570 8,642,308 Single parent in labor force 8,608 18,566 83,970 16,462 17,734 50,741 5,586,003 Need child care 26,721 48,517 279,121 55,512 51,144 154,311 14,228,311 % need child care 71% 67% 63% 63% 63% 62% 61% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, C23008. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov
Appendix B Need for Child Care in Vermont, by County County Total 0-5 Estimated need for care Addison 2,197 1,445 Bennington 2,142 1,248 Caledonia 2,078 1,203 Chittenden 9,738 6,496 Franklin 3,607 2,625 Lamoille 1,485 1,138 Orange 1,833 1,449 Orleans 1,622 985 Rutland 3,656 2,700 Washington 3,730 2,721 Windham 2,537 1,856 Windsor 3,210 2,415 Total 37,835 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables, C23008. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov NOTE: Data are not available for Essex and Grand Isle counties.
Appendix C Wages: Child Care Workers and Preschool Teachers (Except Special Education) Child Average Average Preschool Average Average Care hourly annual Teachers hourly annual Workers National 576,680 $9.46 $19,670 380,930 $12.40 $25,800 Vermont 1,290 $9.48 $19,720 600 $13.77 $28,640 Burlington- South 450 $ 9.42 $ 19,590 250 $12.26 $25,500 Burlington Southern 530 $ 9.62 $ 20,000 160 $15.81 $32,880 Vermont Northern 310 $ 9.35 $ 19,450 180 $14.06 $29,240 Vermont Maine 1,720 $10.46 $21,750 1,670 $12.96 $26,950 New 2,290 $9.23 $19,200 3,090 $12.58 $26,160 Hampshire Massachusetts 11,220 $10.82 $22,500 14,660 $14.19 $29,510 Rhode Island 4,500 $10.25 $21,330 1,060 $14.40 $29,950 Connecticut 6,750 $10.85 $22,570 6,500 $13.98 $29,080
Appendix D: Complete Provider Case Study Budgets Cashflow Projections for Family Child Care Providers. Name of business: Owner: Home Based - 6 Full Time Children Avg. private tuition / child/month 541.67 Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10 Month11 Month 12 TOTAL Avg. subsidy tuition / child/month 541.67 Start up Number of children -100% Private pay 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 60 Number of children - with subsidy 1 1 1 3 Total number of children 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 63
Beginning cash balance $0.00 $1,766.52 $3,164.04 $6,011.06 $7,780.16 $9,664.26 $12,473.36 $14,282.46 $16,111.56 $17,920.66 $19,729.75 $21,538.85
REVENUES Private pay tuitions $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $2,708.35 $32,500.20 Child care tuition subsidies $541.67 $541.67 $541.67 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $1,625.01 Registration Deposits $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Food program revenue $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $4,200.00 Other revenue (Fundraisers & Grants) $75.00 $1,250.00 $75.00 $1,000.00 $2,400.00 Total revenue $3,600.02 $3,675.02 $4,850.02 $3,058.35 $3,133.35 $4,058.35 $3,058.35 $3,058.35 $3,058.35 $3,058.35 $3,058.35 $3,058.35 $40,725.21 Other business cash injections VCLF initial loan amount $0.00 Cash available $0.00 $3,600.02 $5,441.54 $8,014.06 $9,069.41 $10,913.51 $13,722.61 $15,531.71 $17,340.81 $19,169.91 $20,979.01 $22,788.10 $24,597.20 $40,725.21
EXPENSES Employees salaries (not owner) $512.00 $1,024.00 $768.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $2,304.00 Payroll taxes & benefits (11%) $56.00 $113.00 $84.50 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $253.50 Food $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $350.00 $4,200.00 Educational supplies & equipment $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $185.00 $2,220.00 Cleaning & maint $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $120.00 Office supplies & equip. $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $120.00 Liability insurance $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $122.00 $1,464.00 Advertising $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Field Trips & Educational Activities $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Transportation (gas,maint.,etc) $120.00 $150.00 $160.00 $160.00 $120.00 $120.00 $120.00 $100.00 $120.00 $120.00 $120.00 $120.00 $1,530.00 Rent $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Training & employee development $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $10.00 $120.00 Accounting & legal $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $15.00 $180.00 Repairs & maint. $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $240.00 Telephone $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $31.00 $372.00 VCLF monthly payment $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Utilities $295.00 $140.00 $140.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $295.00 $3,230.00 Allowance for bad debt, vacancy $97.50 $97.50 $97.50 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $81.25 $1,023.76 Miscellaneous expenses $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Other $0.00 Total expenses $0.00 $1,833.50 $2,277.50 $2,003.00 $1,289.25 $1,249.25 $1,249.25 $1,249.25 $1,229.25 $1,249.25 $1,249.25 $1,249.25 $1,249.25 $17,377.26 End cash balance $0.00 $1,766.52 $3,164.04 $6,011.06 $7,780.16 $9,664.26 $12,473.36 $14,282.46 $16,111.56 $17,920.66 $19,729.75 $21,538.85 $23,347.95 $23,347.95
ASSUMPTIONS State food reimbursement program allows ... .50¢ for a snack per child per day $1.60 for lunch per child per day .80¢ for breakfast per child per day Max. reimbursement is $2.90 per child per day Max food reimbursement = 2.9
Cashflow Projections for For-profit Center. Name of business: Owner: For-Profit - 40 Children Avg. private tuition / child/month 693 Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10 Month11 Month 12 TOTAL Avg. subsidy tuition / child/month 693 Start up 37627 37658 37686 37717 37747 37778 37808 37840 37870 37900 37931 37961 Number of children -100% Private pay 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 228 Number of children - with subsidy 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 252 Total number of children 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 480
Beginning cash balance $0.00 $2,956.90 $5,913.80 $8,870.70 $11,827.60 $14,784.50 $17,741.40 $20,698.30 $23,655.20 $26,612.10 $29,569.00 $32,525.90
REVENUES Private pay tuitions $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $13,167.00 $158,004.00 Child care tuition subsidies $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $14,553.00 $174,636.00 Registration Deposits $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Food program revenue $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $18,000.00 Other revenue (STARS Bonus/12%) $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $18,000.00 Total revenue $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $30,720.00 $368,640.00 Other business cash injections VCLF initial loan amount Cash available $0.00 $30,720.00 $33,676.90 $36,633.80 $39,590.70 $42,547.60 $45,504.50 $48,461.40 $51,418.30 $54,375.20 $57,332.10 $60,289.00 $63,245.90 $368,640.00
EXPENSES Employees salaries (including owner $3358) $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $20,605.00 $247,260.00 Payroll taxes & benefits (10%) $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $2,060.50 $24,726.00 Food $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $18,000.00 Educational supplies & equipment $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $2,400.00 Cleaning & maint $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Office supplies & equip. $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $1,200.00 Liability & Unemployment insurance & Workers comp $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $235.00 $2,820.00 Interest on LOC $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Field Trips & Educational Activities $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $241.00 $2,892.00 Transportation (gas,maint.,etc) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Taxes $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $290.00 $3,480.00 Training & employee development $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $1,200.00 Accounting & legal $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $150.00 $1,800.00 Repairs & maint. $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $1,200.00 Telephone $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $85.00 $1,020.00 VCLF monthly payment $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Utilities $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $875.00 $10,500.00 Allowance for bad debt, vacancy (3% of Total Revenue) $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $921.60 $11,059.20 Miscellaneous expenses $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $3,600.00 $0.00 Total expenses $0.00 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $27,763.10 $333,157.20 End cash balance $0.00 $2,956.90 $5,913.80 $8,870.70 $11,827.60 $14,784.50 $17,741.40 $20,698.30 $23,655.20 $26,612.10 $29,569.00 $32,525.90 $35,482.80 $35,482.80
ASSUMPTIONS State food reimbursement program allows ... .50¢ for a snack per child per day $1.60 for lunch per child per day .80¢ for breakfast per child per day Max. reimbursement is $2.90 per child per day Max food reimbursement = 2.9
Cashflow Projections for Nonprofit Center. Name of business: Owner: Non-Profit - 37 Children Avg. private tuition / child/month 393.3 Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10 Month11 Month 12 TOTAL Avg. subsidy tuition / child/month 393.3 Start up Number of children -100% Private pay 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 120 Number of children - with subsidy 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 324 Total number of children 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 444
Beginning cash balance
REVENUES Private pay tuitions $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $3,933.00 $47,196.00 Child care tuition subsidies $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $10,619.10 $127,429.20 Registration Deposits $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Food program revenue $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $1,176.00 $14,112.00 Other revenue (Misc. fees & fundraisers) $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $6,000.00 Total revenue $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $194,737.20 Other business cash injections VCLF initial loan amount Cash available $0.00 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10 $16,228.10
EXPENSES Employees salaries $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $10,027.50 $120,330.00 Payroll taxes & benefits (includes worker's comp) $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $952.25 $11,427.00 Food $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Educational supplies & equipment $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $253.00 $3,036.00 Cleaning & maint $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Office supplies & equip. (includes internet) $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $160.00 $1,920.00 Liability insurance $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $106.00 $1,272.00 Advertising $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $25.50 $306.00 Field Trips & Educational Activities $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Transportation (gas,maint.,etc) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Real Estate taxes & insurance $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Training & employee development $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $720.00 Professional Services (acct. & legal) $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $215.00 $2,580.00 Repairs & maint. (includes fire alarm & lawn care) $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $200.00 $2,400.00 Telephone $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $97.00 $1,164.00 VCLF monthly payment $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Utilities $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $275.00 $3,300.00 Allowance for bad debt, vacancy $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $436.56 $5,238.76 Miscellaneous expenses (includes rubbish) $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $280.00 $3,360.00 Second Mortgage (interest only) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Total expenses $0.00 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $13,087.81 $157,053.76 End cash balance $0.00 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $3,140.29 $37,683.44
ASSUMPTIONS State food reimbursement program allows ... .50¢ for a snack per child per day $1.60 for lunch per child per day .80¢ for breakfast per child per day Max. reimbursement is $2.90 per child per day Max food reimbursement = 2.9