In the News!

Iheoma U. Iruka and Stephanie M. Curenton, co-founders of Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race Network (RISER) will discuss the intersections between RISER’s research and themes associated with the national Juneteenth holiday. Guest speakers from the National Black Child Development Institute, POINTS of ACCESS and ZERO TO THREE will share how their organizations are centering racial equity in their ongoing work to improve the wellbeing of Black parents and families amid the pandemic. 

June 17, 2021 

1:00 PM EDT

 When families work to help their children understand race and racism, they are engaging in a process known as racial socialization. To understand how racial socialization can be used as a tool for anti-racism, there is much to learn from families who have been racially marginalized and the lessons they have taught their children. For this Talking Race and Kids conversation, we’ll explore racial socialization as a vital form of parent and caregiver involvement and discuss strategies that resist and disrupt racism when socializing young children, ages 0 to 8. 

June 22, 2021 

8:30 PM EDT

 In the best of times, pK-12 education presents challenges for teachers and students alike. Research shows that attending to these challenges improves from a condition of mindfulness. And the commitment is light--as little as 10 minutes a day gives back many times over in preparing you and your students to do your best teaching and learning. 

July 20, 2021

11:00 AM - 6:00 PM EDT

Cost: $250.00

Host: MIT

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. 

Seeks to improve health and well-being for families and children by helping families in the United States build economic stability and mobility. Families face multiple barriers to enrollment in evidence-based government support programs and financial services such as tax credits, college savings accounts, and financial coaching, including confusing applications, long lines, time scarcity, and limited transportation options. In response, StreetCred makes it easier, faster, and cheaper for families to access these services by meeting them in a trusted, frequented, untapped location: the pediatrician's office. 

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

 THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE on Wednesday passed a constitutional amendment raising taxes on income over $1 million, the final vote needed to put the measure on the November 2022 ballot.  

IT’S JUNE 2021 and, finally, most children have returned to full-time in-person school. Teachers are reconnecting with students whose experiences over the last 16 months vary widely: a student who lost a parent to COVID-19, another whose family has been stressed by job loss, food insecurity, and mental health challenges, another who is reeling from a year of isolation and fear, and another who quickly embraces the return to routine and friends. 

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently signed legislation requiring employers to provide COVID-19 emergency paid sick leave (“COVID-19 EPSL”) to employees who are unable to work for COVID-19-related reasons. In this post, we summarize and answer some frequently asked questions. 

A Boston-based nonprofit and the state Department of Early Education and Care have teamed up to protect child care facilities across the state with a free pooled coronavirus testing program. 

The state has lifted pandemic restrictions, but did you know that includes for child care centers?

Public health officials are recommending kids five older wear their masks indoors and keep at least 3-feet of separation, but mandates to do so are gone.

Massachusetts education officials are now asking child care programs to incorporate their own policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19

The welcome news that Boston is reopening for business landed with a thud last week for many working parents on the city payroll. All employees are due back at their desks full time in six weeks. Managers must report for duty in two, three, or four weeks, depending on their role. 

Parents anxiously awaiting the July 15 start of the monthly child tax credit payments should start planning how they'll use the extra money now. 

June 19, or Juneteenth, is a holiday that commemorates the day that Texas, the last Confederate state, learned about the Emancipation Proclamation—marking the end of slavery in the United States in 1865. 

But as University of Pittsburgh historian Alaina Roberts notes, it’s important to remember that the emancipation of slaves didn’t actually happen in one fell swoop.

Child care was labeled essential during the coronavirus pandemic, but preschool teachers, family child care providers, relatives and nannies have long been doing the critical work of helping young kids grow and thrive. 

Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the Biden administration's efforts to expand child care and relieve the financial pressures of parenthood during a visit to a child care center on Friday. 

As the 117th Congress kicked off this year, the body’s Democratic women saw an opportunity. With a Democratic administration, a record number of female officeholders, and national attention on the crises facing working women during the pandemic, the congresswomen didn’t want to squander it. 

 The May jobs report showed overall growth. Women gained about 381,000 jobs, while men lost around 4,000. These numbers provide fodder for the take that child care is not holding back workers from returning to work. Dominant voices arguing that women with small children make up only 12 percent of the U.S. workforce and, with many of them already back to work, focusing on their needs won’t do much to move the dial. 

In the United States, state-level agencies administer almost $40 billion in federal funding and more than $8 billion in state funding, plus other state investments in early learning (e.g., literacy/reading proficiency). This does not include recent federal appropriations in the American Rescue Plan Act to child care providers and schools to respond to the pandemic.  

On June 2, President Joe Biden announced the "National Month of Action," an initiative that strives to have 70 percent of American adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4.

In the chronically underfunded U.S. child care sector, staff turnover has always been a problem — but never quite like this. 

Education systems in the United States have experienced, and responded to, a myriad of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) hits the coffers of educational agencies and the nation transitions from one school year to the next, school leaders must reflect on lessons learned from education system responses to the pandemic and apply them to the nation’s return to in-person learning.