Child Care Has Shifted: Are We Ready for the Future?

Changes to the labor market, increased understanding of the science of early childhood, and the visibility of the child care crisis present an opportunity to interrogate and reimagine child care, and that is what we did with prominent leaders in the field during this session. 

Nationally recognized early childhood and human services leader Susan Gale Perry of Child Care Aware of America moderated the conversation and introduced the discussion by engaging with Marica Cox Mitchell of the Bainum Family Foundation. Mitchell shared the foundation’s WeVision EarlyEd initiative and their work to gather input and ideas from their partners, whom they call “proximity experts” because of their proximity to young children, about what is needed to improve systems and policies and reimagine the field. Mitchell discussed how educators and families need to be part of the solution and unafraid to help shape the systems that they need:

Listening to our proximity experts, we have been leaning in to make sure we’re defining the ideal in making the ideal real. And that definition, like the proximity experts stated, has to be early childhood educators and families not being victims of the future, not being afraid of the future, but leaning into it and shaping it.…Change is going to be required as we lean into these shifts that are happening.

After Mitchell’s framing, Perry engaged a panel of early childhood educators and administrators, along with policy experts representing diverse settings and child care options, who shared their perspectives on how child care can better meet the needs of young children and their families. Rhian Evans Allvin of Brynmor Early Education and Preschool, Jamal Berry of Educare DC, Kayla Corbitt of Operation Child Care Project and Tiffany Jones of Precious Moments Family Child Care discussed how they have handled paying a fair wage to their educators and offering support and professional development; managing licensing and regulatory needs; and ensuring their services are affordable and accessible to families. Berry expressed how he and his organization are managing their budget to ensure that there are multiple measures focused on staff development and care:

We have a staff wellness manager. So I think having a budget for staff wellness support needs to be a proactive measure and not only reactive to when events happen. This is important as well as professional development by personnel who are geared in adult learning principles so they understand how adults learn and are actually creating content and trainings around that. And then last but not least, I think innovation and strategic opportunities — budgeting for innovation, budgeting to do innovative stuff with staff, budgeting to support staff in ways that they want to be supported — are also important.

If you were able to attend the session, we would love to hear your feedback! We appreciate your help in filling out the following form as we seek to learn and understand the perspectives, ideas, critiques and recommendations that better inform our key audiences.