Strategies
Improve Early Grade-Level Reading
Use Contracts to Ensure Quality and Accessibility
Because low-wage families face unique child care challenges and needs, research shows the use of contracts with child care providers can better help to increase the availability of affordable child care while maintaining higher quality services in underserved communities than the use of traditional child care vouchers.
What Can Policymakers Do?
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Improve quality through accreditation. Connecticut requires all contracted child care providers to be accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) within a period of three years. The state supports providers in meeting accreditation by funding a career development system that includes a statewide Accreditation Facilitation Project. Recognizing that high-quality care is expensive, Connecticut allows contracted providers to layer voucher payments and contracted payments to support the costs of high-quality care and meeting NAEYC standards. [i]
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Reach targeted populations . Three states—Oregon, Virginia, and Wisconsin—use CCDBG funds to provide contracts with community-based agencies to ensure that children of migrant farm workers have access to affordable child care or Head Start services. [ii] In Massachusetts, the supportive child care contracts for abused and neglected children require a needs assessment and provision or referral of additional services. Contracted providers receive an additional $15 a day to cover the costs of case management services, transportation, or other services. [iii]
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Increase teacher certification . In Arkansas, family child care providers may participate on their own or as part of networks of family child care homes, which rotate a certified teacher to help with lesson plans and assessment. The budget includes salary, benefits, and professional development funds for the family child care provider. It also includes a small transportation stipend for each child, along with financial supports for development and health screenings; meaningful parental engagement; and curriculum, materials, and work sampling assessments.
[i] Hannah Matthews and Rachel Schumacher (2008). Ensuring Quality Care for Low-Income Babies : Contracting Directly with Providers to Expand and Improve Infant and Toddler Care. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Social Policy.
[ii] http://www.clasp.org/publications/ccdbg_state_plan_report.pdf .
[iii] Hannah Matthews and Rachel Schumacher (2008). Ensuring Quality Care for Low-Income Babies: Contracting Directly with Providers to Expand and Improve Infant and Toddler Care. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Social Policy