In the News!

The pandemic increased stressed for children, parents, and the early childhood workforce. Many were forced to stay home, others were forced to work. Increases in stress require increases in resources to effectively support the workforce as they manage their own stress and the social-emotional needs of the children returning to their care. The good news is we have models that research shows are effective, and resources from the federal COVID relief funds that can support their development. 

July 21, 2021

3:00 PM

Delivered by Jewish Vocational Service

OVERVIEW

Once you have fully completed the survey, you will be eligible to receive a Benchmarking Report comparing your company to others in your local area. The names of the other companies will be masked in the report, just as your information will be masked in reports received by other companies. 

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY-17) today reintroduced the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, a comprehensive and bicameral bill that will ensure that every family has access to high-quality, affordable child care and early learning opportunities by establishing a network of federally-supported, locally administered child care options.  

The Cliff Effect occurs when a person or family becomes ineligible for public assistance programs like housing and childcare subsidies once their income surpasses the threshold set by the Federal Poverty Guidelines, leaving them financially worse off than they were before the income bump. It causes people to turn down raises and promotions and is a major factor in perpetuating multi-generational poverty.  

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 Project Bread Legislative Agenda:

• school meals universally free for all students
• improve nutrition standards for school meals
• encourage sourcing from local producers and processors

Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday his administration has no plans to reinstate a mask mandate for schools this fall, one day after a dozen lawmakers urged him to revive the policy in early education and elementary school settings amid the spread of the more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19. 

Massachusetts youth were twice as likely as adults to lose employment during the COVID-19 pandemic, while young parents in particular faced a "confluence of pressures" more severe than other age groups, according to new state survey data. 

Massachusetts has awarded $7.5 million in grants to help child care facilities renovate buildings and address safety concerns related to COVID-19, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday. 

As there are more signs of the distress that kids have felt amid the upheaval of the pandemic, some early childhood development researchers say strong relationships and supports will be key to rebuilding social-emotional as well as academic skills in young children. 

Thank you for advocating for high-quality early education and care in the Massachusetts state budget. 

Your advocacy has paid off! 

All $44 million at stake for early education and care was included in the conference committee's FY22 budget, released last Thursday and passed by the Legislature on Friday. 

For early education and care, all line items received the higher funding amount between House and Senate budgets. This includes $20 million for a rate increase for center-based early educator salaries, $8.95 million for EEC's parent fee sliding scale reserve, $12 million for child care resource and referral agencies, $10 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, and more.

While we applaud recent federal stimulus investments in child care, and proposals for further investment in the American Families Plan, it is critical that our state leaders continue to invest state dollars into high-quality early education and care. 

Our early educators, young children and families are counting on us to help fully recover from the pandemic and build a stronger, more sustainable, more equitable early education and care system.

The budget has moved to Governor Baker who has 10 days to sign the budget into law, and can make line item vetoes. Tell Governor Baker to sign the budget into law, and thank him for investing in early education and care. 

A new report ranks Massachusetts 'Number One' nationally among states for overall child well-being, but advocates for children and families say when you dig deeper, many successes have been uneven.

Some 12% of the Commonwealth's children were living in poverty prior to the pandemic, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2021 Kids Count Data Book. 

Over a year after daycares, preschools and child-care centers started reopening, U.S. parents and providers are still struggling to find a new normal.  

 A research team from the University of Chicago, which includes Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman, released the results of new analysis from an ongoing study of the Perry Preschool Program, an influential early childhood education program “targeted to promote the social mobility of disadvantaged African-American children.”  

Senate Democrats are close to finalizing a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would begin the process of enacting an ambitious social agenda that is expected to include historic government investments in child care. This proposal — introduced by President Biden in April as part of his American Families Plan — has faced its share of conservative opposition, as have policymakers’ attempts to tackle child care over the past half-century. 

 Comprehensive child care and early learning policy is a “win for all” policy: a pathway to progress on gender, racial, and income equality; healthy child development and family well-being; improved educational outcomes; and economic growth and prosperity. The President’s Build Back Better plan, reflected in the Congressional budget, is essential to building a strong child care and early learning system that can achieve these goals.