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Start Strong PA has released a new report that describes how other states are tackling the child care teacher shortage by funding initiatives that improve recruitment and retention of staff.

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“Solving the Child Care Teacher Shortage Through State Recruitment and Retention Investments” discusses how 16 states are directly investing in recruitment, retention, and other wage-impacting strategies to ensure that the supply of child care teachers can meet the demand and keep classrooms open.

Issued by Start Strong PA and the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children (PennAEYC), the report notes that some of the states it references also have a child care subsidy reimbursement rate at or above the 75th percentile. 

The report comes in the wake of a September 2023 survey conducted by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s PolicyLab on behalf of Start Strong PA to demonstrate Pennsylvania’s child care crisis. 

The survey found that nearly 26,000 additional children could be served at child care programs if fully staffed. Additionally, it found that 2,395 open positions have resulted in the closure of 934 classrooms, and that providers’ inability to recruit and retain staff is having a direct impact on the quality of programming.

As part of the 2024-25 proposed state budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed to utilize federal funding to increase the child care subsidy reimbursement to the 75th percentile of the current market price of child care services. However, while this increase would alleviate some of the inflationary pressures that subsidized providers are facing, it likely wouldn’t be sufficient to make the level of workforce investments necessary to solve the teacher shortage, the Start Strong PA report found.

The report recommends that the state establish and fund a program that will help providers better recruit and retain staff and, as a result, keep classrooms open.

For more information, read Start Strong PA’s report.