Compensation Technical Workgroup. Report to the Washington State Legislature

N

57

Policymakers

Child Care; Child Care Occupations; Child Caregivers; Labor Force Development; Early Childhood Education; Wages; Labor Turnover; Teacher Recruitment; Diversity (Institutional); Compensation (Remuneration); Substitute Teachers; Faculty Development; Parents; Preservice Teacher Education; Eligibility

In the 2017-2019 operating budget, the Legislature appropriated $5,000 to create a child care workforce development technical workgroup (Workgroup) and directed the Department of Early Learning (now the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, or DCYF) to convene a group consisting of 13 stakeholders to develop recommendations for the Legislature on how to: (1) Increase child care workforce wages; (2) Reduce workforce turnover; (3) Enable child care providers to recruit more qualified educators; and (4) Maintain the diversity of the current workforce. This report outlines the recommendations made by the Workgroup. The Workgroup's recommendations are presented as a package to address the four priority areas of the report. The Workgroup concluded that funding only part of the recommendations will not have sufficient impact on all four areas for workforce stability. The recommendations include: (1) Early childhood educators receive a competitive compensation package comparable to K-3 educators; (2) Early childhood educators have access to the state-sponsored substitute pool to provide classroom coverage when taking time off; and (3) Expand Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) eligibility to include parents who are enrolled in an early childhood education degree program and employment requirements are waived.

ERIC

2019

ED595720