News

October 22, 2024

ELPA Releases Report on State of Early Care and Education in PA

The Early Learning PA (ELPA) coalition has released a new report on the state of early care and education in Pennsylvania. 

Learn More

The report, Providing the Necessary Foundation for Young Children to Succeed, includes a number of findings regarding the effect on the state when families can access child care options. It also provides policy recommendations about recruitment and retention for the child care workforce.

The report states that the focus of the ELPA coalition – of which Pre-K for PA, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, and Start Strong PA are members – advocates for access to high-quality early care and education and healthy development opportunities for all Pennsylvania children.

The report takes a deeper look into complexities within the state’s child care and pre-k system and recommends improvements that are necessary to ensure the system functions equitably. Its aim is to increase access and affordability for all Pennsylvania families.

Key Findings

The report’s key findings include:

  • 71% of families with young children in the state have all available caregivers in the workforce.
  • Pennsylvania loses about $6.65 billion annually when families cannot access child care options.
  • Only 25% of eligible infants and toddlers are being served by Child Care Works, leaving more than 73,000 eligible infants and toddlers unserved.
  • On average, child care for an infant in Pennsylvania comprises about 17.5% of the median family’s income.
  • The state’s average wage of a child care worker is about $15.15 per hour.
  • Only 46% of all child care capacity in Pennsylvania meets high-quality standards and only 36% of providers serving children under age 5 in Child Care Works are high-quality.
  • Only 46% of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds participate in high-quality, publicly-funded pre-k, leaving more than 78,000 without access to a high-quality program.
  • At 49%, child care programs comprise the largest share of Pre-K Counts providers in the state, with half of Pre-K Counts children being served in high-quality child care centers.
  • The average salary for pre-k teachers in the state is $34,430, compared to $68,250 for kindergarten teachers.
  • 96% of kindergarten teachers agree that students who attend high-quality pre-k programs are ready for success when they start kindergarten.

Policy Recommendations

The report’s recommendations for policymakers in Pennsylvania include:

  • Implementing and continually funding a recruitment and retention model to increase the child care workforce and ensure providers have the staff needed to operate at full capacity
  • Cease using market-rate surveys, instead conducting cost estimation studies to develop an approved modeling tool to determine the true cost of providing high-quality care; this would ensure accurate investment in state funding in the child care sector to build an infrastructure that would support providers
  • Increasing state and federal funding for the child care sector to serve more infants and toddlers
  • Increasing state pre-k investments in Pre-K Counts and HSSAP
  • Developing and fully funding a pay parity policy for pre-k teachers that reflects wages provided to teachers in the K-12 system
  • Requiring OCDEL to produce a report every three years that provides a clear picture of the early childhood workforce, using state-level and county data and including recommendations on how Pennsylvania can better support the profession
  • Expanding the number of high-quality providers by increasing incentives within the state’s QRIS, Keystone STARS
  • Providing additional opportunities for professional development and career advancement for the early care and education workforce
  • Conducting an equity audit of the state’s early care and education system to understand better the changes needed to ensure equitable access for all children

The entire report can be viewed online.

News

April 20, 2021

Start Strong PA Provider and Family Field Forums: Building a Stronger Child Care System through the American Rescue Plan

Child care providers and families are invited to virtual forums to share their pandemic experiences and make recommendations for how they feel the American Rescue Plan federal dollars should be spent in Pennsylvania.

About

Start Strong PA is hosting virtual forums to gather feedback from child care providers and the families they serve in order to make recommendations to the Wolf Administration for how the American Rescue Plan funds should be spent.

The American Rescue Plan includes $24 billion for child care stabilization, $15 billion for the Child Care Development Block Grant, and $3.55 billion in the Child Care Entitlement to States. Pennsylvania is estimated to be awarded $1.18 billion. 

The child care sector was in crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic, with eligible families unable to access child care subsidy, poverty-level wages for early childhood educators, and razor thin margins for providers. The child care sector has been pushed to the brink of collapse by the pandemic. Federal relief over the last year has helped many providers, however between March 2020 and February 2021, 592 Pennsylvania providers have closed permanently and 363 have temporarily closed.  Child care providers are still incurring additional pandemic related costs while operating significantly under capacity. 

Register

  • Allegheny County Forum | May 4, 2021
    10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
    Register
  • Southwestern PA Forum | May 11, 2021
    (Lawrence, Butler, Armstrong, Indiana, Somerset, Fayette, Greene, Washington, Beaver, and Westmoreland counties)
    10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
    Register

Both forums will be held virtually via Zoom. Registration is required to receive an attendance link.

 

News

February 4, 2021

2021-22 Pennsylvania Budget Proposal Response

On February 3, during his 2021-22 budget proposal address, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf put an emphasis on Pennsylvania families.

As a member of Early Learning Pennsylvania (ELPA), a statewide coalition of advocates focused on supporting young Pennsylvanians from birth to age five, Trying Together commends the governor’s continued commitment to growing state funding for pre-k. However, additional effort is needed to boost the availability of quality child care and home visiting services that are essential to Pennsylvania’s working families and our economic recovery.

ELPA operates three issue-based advocacy campaigns: Pre-K for PA, Start Strong PA, and Childhood Begins at Home.

Governor Wolf’s state budget proposal included:

Pre-k

  • $25 million in additional funding for the state’s Pre-K Counts program.
  • $5 million in additional funding for the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program. Together, this $30 million expansion would serve approximately 3,270 additional young children. Currently, more than 106,000 eligible three- and four-year-old children do not have access to high-quality publicly funded pre-k programs.

In a press release, ELPA states, “During a difficult budget year, Governor Wolf deserves credit for his continued support of expanded access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-k in PA. The $30 million funding increase for these programs in the proposed 2021-22 PA budget ($25 million for Pre-K Counts; $5 million for Head Start State Supplemental Assistance Program) continues the tradition of expanding this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to thousands more three- and four-year-olds.

“A new study by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill confirmed that the Commonwealth’s investment in pre-k is paying dividends for the children fortunate enough to access pre-k through Pennsylvania’s Pre-K Counts program. In language and math skills, the study showed that these kids outperformed their kindergarten peers who did not enjoy access – an advantage that equated to four to five months of learning gains, which is a substantial difference in development at that age and a meaningful advantage during the COVID-19 era.”

Child Care

  • $87 million in existing federal child care funds to increase child care base rates.

Base rates for CCW reimbursements will be increased to the 40th percentile of the market rate for child care in the provider’s region, up from approximately the 25th percentile where most of Pennsylvania’s child care providers currently sit. This change brings Pennsylvania closer to the federal government’s recommendation of reimbursing at the 75th percentile.

Trying Together and the ELPA campaigns commend the Wolf administration for this proposed change, however, the child care industry needs an additional boost.

“Pennsylvania’s working families struggled to find and afford high-quality child care prior to the pandemic. Today’s economic downturn has only exacerbated this problem,” the ELPA press release states. “Start Strong PA urges Governor Wolf and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to address these child care needs by quickly utilizing federal funds to serve 3,000 additional eligible infants and toddlers in high-quality slots through contracts, which provides greater financial stability to providers.”

Evidence-based Home Visiting

  • Level funding for home visiting.

The current public health crisis, isolation, stress, and unemployment have made home visiting more essential than ever. Trying Together and the ELPA campaigns hope to work collaboratively with the administration and legislature to expand evidence-based home visiting services to match that commitment with the resources to make it a reality.

We will advocate for these investments as the budget process continues. Stay up-to-date on how to advocate for these issues by signing-up to support Trying Together’s public policy agenda.