News

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has released a report on the results of their fall survey. Entitled, “Uncertainty Ahead Means Instability Now: Why Families, Children, Educators, Businesses, and States Need Congress to Fund Child Care,” the report quantifies the impact of recent child care challenges.

About the NAEYC Survey and Report

The NAEYC survey was conducted in October 2022 using SurveyMonkey.

The resulting report represents the responses of 12,897 individuals working in all states (including 941 individuals working in Pennsylvania child care programs) and early childhood education settings, including faith-based programs, family child care homes, Head Starts, and child care centers. It is intended to present the experiences of the respondents, as captured in the moment that they took the survey.

Summary of Pennsylvania Survey Data

Data on Stabilization Grants

Over the course of the pandemic, Pennsylvania utilized federal relief funding to stabilize the child care sector. This included one-time bonuses for child care teachers and increased subsidy payments for providers to increase staff salaries. However, this relief funding will soon end. As a result of the end of pandemic relief funding:

• 62% of Pennsylvania child care center directors reported that they will have to raise tuition
• 29% of Pennsylvania child care center directors reported they will have to cut staff salaries

Data on Staffing and Supply

• 57.7% of Pennsylvania child care center directors reported serving fewer children than they would like, primarily due to staffing shortages
  • 65.8% of Pennsylvania child care center directors reported currently experiencing a staffing shortage
• 33.7% of Pennsylvania early childhood educators (ECE) indicated “yes” or “maybe” to considering leaving their job or closing their family child care home
  • 45.8% of family child care providers indicated “yes” or “maybe” to considering leaving their job
  • 35.4% of ECEs in minority-owned child care businesses indicated “yes” or “maybe” to considering leaving their job
  • 9.9% of ECEs in non-minority-owned child care businesses indicated “yes” or “maybe” to considering leaving their job
  • However, the majority of ECEs indicated competitive wages would convince them to stay at their jobs.

Data on ECE Workforce Well-Being

• 34.9% of Pennsylvania respondents reported experiencing financial insecurity in the last year, despite 54.7% reporting an increased wage
• Additionally, 78.6% of Pennsylvania respondents indicated that burnout/exhaustion contributed “greatly” or “to some extent” to problems retaining teachers

NAEYC Recommendations

NAEYC recommends that congress build on the successes of child care funding to prioritize additional, sustainable investments.

These investments ensure programs and educators can meet the needs of families, children, and businesses, and states can continue to build towards an early childhood education system that works.

Learn More

To learn more about the NAEYC survey results, read the full report.