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Shifting Immigration Policies Are Changing Daily Life for Child Care Providers

Ashley Álvarez — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

For two weeks after President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, A. Hernandez did not set foot outside her home in Chicago. She stopped grocery shopping. She stopped taking her grandson to preschool — all in fear that federal immigration agents would detain her.

“With pain in my heart, I told my son I couldn’t pick up or drop off my grandson at school anymore,” said Hernandez, who asked to be identified by her first initial and last name in order to protect her safety. “I was scared. If they take me when he’s with me, what would they do to him?”

She cares for her two grandchildren, ages 5 and 6, while their parents are at work. The 5-year-old, who has been diagnosed with autism, attends a preschool with specialized resources. Outside of preschool, Hernandez is the only one his parents trust to care for the boy.

“I dropped him off, picked him up, went on his school field trips, cooked for him after school,” recalled Hernandez. She took three buses to get to the school, a daily roundtrip commute between two and three hours, while carrying a stroller and diaper bag.

But Hernandez had to pull back.

The nation’s child care system relies on the contributions of immigrants like Hernandez. early care and education providers identify as immigrants, and home-based child care — the most arrangement in the U.S. — has a of immigrant providers than center-based programs.

Over the past year, immigration enforcement activities have intensified, leaving providers and families anxious and unsettled. Since he took office, Trump has expanded immigration enforcement and a policy that prohibited immigration activity in certain spaces, including schools and places where children congregate. The administration has also made financial investments in federal immigration enforcement.

These investments and policy shifts have disrupted the child care workforce nationwide, heightening fear and instability among providers. caregivers and child care providers of young children have reported noticing the impact of immigration enforcement activities in their community, according to the RAPID Survey Project at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. Some have left the field altogether.

A conducted by economists Chris Herbst and Erdal Tekin found that increased arrests by federal immigration officers in the first six months of the Trump administration are associated with 39,000 immigrant child care providers leaving the workforce. It also found that, as a result of the increased arrests and shrinking child care workforce, 77,000 American-born mothers also .

Below are the stories of five immigrant women providing home-based care for relatives and neighbors. Located in California, Colorado, Illinois and Texas, they all reported that intensified immigration enforcement has disrupted their work, with ripple effects on the children and families they serve.

Some shared that the young children they care for have expressed fear that their parents could be arrested. Some said they had to change their routines to limit their time in public spaces, and that parents were doing the same. Others said parents stopped taking their older kids to school.

These vignettes — which draw from interviews conducted in Spanish that have been translated and edited for clarity — offer insight into the experiences of immigrants caring for our nation’s youngest children.

A. Hernandez

Home State: Illinois
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 6
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for 2��

After visiting family in the U.S. in 1991 when she was 16 years old, A. Hernandez fell in love with Chicago and decided to stay. She started working at a local restaurant, where she met her husband. She married at 17, had four children and eventually became a stay-at-home mom.

Her children are now adults, and she provides child care for their kids. It’s not uncommon: working parents rely on a grandmother for child care.

But after President Trump was inaugurated, Hernandez said she put cardboard on her windows so no one could see inside and barely left the house.

When she could no longer bring her grandson to and from preschool, his parents changed their work schedules as best they could to account for the disruption in child care. They eventually enrolled their son in a busing program, but the process took over a month, she said. On the days they could not adjust their work schedules, they opted for him to stay home with Hernandez. He missed over a month of school, and a number of sessions with his speech therapist.

“It affected him a lot. Before, he was starting to speak and sing. He was more conversational,” Hernandez said. “Now, he struggles. His communication is more sounds and gestures. He missed over a month of his therapies, and it shows.”

Hernandez said she’s been anxious for months. Once her grandson was enrolled in the busing program, she decided she could pick him up at the bus stop. She began returning to her routine, but said she constantly felt “like someone was following her.”

Then, in November 2025, a Chicago child care provider was at an early learning center on the same street where Hernandez’s daughter works. It happened while children were being dropped off.

Federal immigration agents chased a day care worker into Rayito de Sol, the Chicago center where she works, and dragged her out in front of children before arresting her. The November incident is one of many fueling this week’s demands to keep agents away from Head Start, child care and pre-K classrooms. (Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Hernandez recalled hearing the news. The child care provider “was doing something good, working with children. Now we have to explain this to children, that we’re all at risk,” she said.

Worried for their safety, Hernandez and her husband opened a naturalization case in November with the hope of gaining U.S. citizenship. The legal proceedings are expensive, so to help make ends meet, Hernandez has picked up an overnight shift at a fast food chain. (She is typically paid $75 a week to care for her grandchildren.)

Hernandez has tried her best to shield her grandchildren from the increased presence of immigration officers in their neighborhood. “My eldest grandson saw officers near his school,” she said. When he told her about it, he said he was afraid they were coming to take him. “Their uniforms are green. He said that the ‘green men’ were coming to take children in black vans. I told him, ‘No, they won’t take you.’”

Carmela Enriquez

Home State: Colorado
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 20
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 4

In 2001, Carmela Enriquez came to the United States from Mexico, joining her family in Colorado. She was 15 years old, and enrolled in a local high school as a ninth grader. In 11th grade, she was warned that she would not have access to federal financial aid because, at the time, she was an undocumented immigrant.

Knowing that her family wouldn’t be able to help cover the cost of college, she dropped out of high school. “I was sad, because I always liked school,” said Enriquez.

In 2004, Enriquez got married and the next year, she gave birth to her first son. Soon after, her cousin approached her about caring for his infant, who was around the same age as her son. He liked the idea of his baby being watched by someone in the family while he was at work. Since then, different family members have relied on Enriquez for child care. Today, she cares for four of her nephews, in addition to her two youngest children, who are 2 and 6 years old.

Enriquez said she changed a number of daily routines immediately after Trump came back into office. She typically picked up her four nephews from her sister’s house, but assuming there would be more immigration officers stationed at high-traffic roads, she changed her route.

“I tried not to drive on busy streets,” she said. “But when it snows in Colorado, I noticed they weren’t removing the snow as fast on the roads I traveled on as on the main streets. I told myself I had to stop my fear of officers, because I was also scared of being in a car accident.”

A few months later, Enriquez began volunteering for a local group that alerted community members if federal immigration officers were nearby. Her eldest child, now in college, warned his mother not to participate.

“He said, ‘No, don’t go. You shouldn’t go outside. If you need something from the market, I’ll go,’” Enriquez recalled. “It makes me sad that my children, born here, are scared.”

A woman is arrested by police during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 10, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty)

Enriquez said she has witnessed people get arrested by immigration officers, and fear has swept across the community. “Last September, there was a local celebration for child care providers. There was food, flowers. Only three providers, myself included, showed up,” said Enriquez. “There had been immigration officers seen on a nearby street. I couldn’t tell providers to come anyway. I can’t take away their fear.”

“We are essential workers. We care for children whose parents work in agriculture, dairy farms, food transport,” said Enriquez. “I’m crying because I see so many kind providers, and the quality care they give to children. There’s people saying this country is not ours, and that if [immigration] officers mistreat us, we deserve it. But no one deserves to be treated that way.”

E. Hernandez

Home State: Texas
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 12
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 7

E. Hernandez, A. Hernandez’s sister, moved to Texas from Mexico with her husband in 2013, when he relocated for work. Then five months pregnant, she became friendly with a neighbor, who mentioned she could not find before- and after- school care for her 7-year-old son.

“It started as a favor. [The neighbor] said it would be difficult to leave her son with someone she didn’t know,” said Hernandez, who requested we refer to her by her first initial and last name in order to protect her safety. “I said I’d take care of him. I’d drop him off at school, pick him up, and care for him until she came home.”

Hernandez cared for her neighbor’s son until the family moved 15 months later.

Over the past 13 years, Hernandez has cared for more than a dozen children through a variety of arrangements — some steady, others occasional. She began by watching the children of her husband’s coworkers and, once her eldest started school, connected with local parents in need of after-school care.

Today, Hernandez looks after her own three children and provides care for others as needed. She regularly supports one family during school breaks and, in health emergencies, steps in for another family, sometimes caring for all five of their children — four of whom she said are immunocompromised.

“It’s a favor,” Hernandez said. “These are children who are ill, so I always say yes — even if it’s two in the morning.”

Such flexible, around-the-clock care is especially common among home-based providers. At some point, children requires care during nontraditional hours.

Last year, Hernandez was advised by a local parent to pursue a child care license so she could provide long-term care to more families. (In Texas, child care providers are from a license if they do not care for more than one unrelated child or sibling group.)

“I was so excited. I’ve always loved children, so I decided to call the local agency,” said Hernandez. When asked over the phone to provide her Social Security Number, Hernandez specified she had anIndividual Taxpayer Identification Number (). “The woman on the phone said that Texas does not give child care licenses to people without a Social Security Number,” Hernandez said.

Though she’s been unable to get licensed, she continues to care for children. “I do it for the good of the community, for the good of our children,” she said.

Blanca Luna

Home State: California
Place of birth: Mexico
Number of years providing child care: 5
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 3

Blanca Luna immigrated to California from Mexico in 2016, when she was 24 years old. She arrived with her then 15-month-old daughter in order to join her husband in the U.S.

She now has two children, 12 and 9 years old. As a stay-at-home mom, Luna began to meet local parents when her youngest son started kindergarten in 2020.

“In our town, many parents work in agricultural fields. Agricultural workers continued to work during the pandemic [stay-at-home orders], and they needed child care because many centers closed,” said Luna. “I wanted to help because they couldn’t stop working. I started providing child care, even if it was an hour or two … If it were me who needed help, I would want someone to help me. I did it out of love, community.”

Luna has continued to provide child care to local families, usually when school is closed for holidays. She provides regular child care on weekdays to a 3-year-old girl, and is compensated between $300 and $400 a month. She also occasionally provides before- and after- school care for two other children. One of those families pays her $25 per day. The other doesn’t pay her at all.

A woman holds a sign during a press event held by family members of people detained by ICE on June 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Jim Vondruska/Getty)

Over the past few months, Luna said she has been approached by two local parents who do not have American citizenship about whether she would take care of their children if they were arrested by immigration officers. “I don’t have the heart to say no. But it is a concern for me,” she said. “Taking care of a child needs money, and I don’t have an income. Only my husband does.”

Those fears weigh heavily on the children in her care, Luna said, particularly their mental health. The threat of family separation creates instability, especially when “children see parents being beaten, mistreated and humiliated.”

Luna said there are efforts to support families in her community, but they fall short.

“I’ve seen resources like food banks. That’s good. But people can’t pay rent with food,” she said. “I think people want to go to work safely and build a better future.”

Yanet Martinez

Home State: California
Place of birth: El Salvador
Number of years providing child care: 17
Still providing child care: Yes
Number of children cared for: 6��

Yanet Martinez immigrated to the U.S. 17 years ago, fleeing domestic violence in her home in El Salvador. Her five children stayed behind.

In 2019, Martinez said she qualified for — a program for victims of criminal activity — that has since changed to a, a program for victims of trafficking.

She found her way to Los Angeles and picked up a series of odd jobs. Today, she works at a local community center as a promotora, a Spanish term similar to a community liaison or resource navigator. She’s also a local child care provider.

Four of her children have immigrated to the U.S. She has nine grandchildren, and cares for six of them. She also occasionally cares for her neighbor’s children.

, federal immigration officers and state troopers arrived at a local park on horseback and in armored vehicles in the neighborhood where Martinez lives. One of her children witnessed the raid.

“My daughter was on the way to work, but she ran back inside. I had a doctor’s appointment, and I chose not to go. It was chaos. I saw tanks — tanks I haven’t seen since I was a girl during the [Salvadoran Civil] war,” said Martinez. “Another time, one of my sons saw federal agents at a parking lot close to his job. He managed to see them in time and hid, but six of his coworkers didn’t make it to their cars. The agents pushed them to the ground, beat them and took them away.”

Despite fearing for her safety, Martinez continues caring for her grandchildren, bringing them to and from school. On a local bus, in transit to pick up one of them, Martinez said, “I’m still working in the community. I’m still providing care for my grandchildren. I do it with fear, with precaution. But I do it.”

Reporting for this article was supported by New America’s Better Life Lab Story Fellowship.

As NAEYC Turns 100, Early Education Leaders Reflect on Progress and Gaps

Emily Tate Sullivan — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000

This year marks the centennial anniversary of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), arguably the premier professional organization for the early care and education workforce in America.

The national nonprofit plans to the occasion with an “intentional year of celebration, reflection and doing what we’ve always done — center the voices of educators,” said CEO Michelle Kang.

A century is a long time for any organization to exist. It is a long time — period. Thus, NAEYC’s centennial presents an opportunity for longtime early childhood educators and leaders to recognize the progress the field has made, and to consider why, 100 years later, some systemic issues remain unchanged.

Worthy Wage Day, 1992, in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Courtesy of the ECHOES Project, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment)

Founded in 1926 and first known as the National Association for Nursery Education, NAEYC has a long history of promoting high-quality education for children from birth to age 8, advocating for improved working conditions in the field, and helping families and the general public understand the value of early childhood education. Today, it is the largest early childhood education association in the country, with affiliates in nearly every state, reaching hundreds of thousands of educators through its research, advocacy and membership network.

Over the past century, NAEYC has been involved with a number of the profession’s major . The organization participated in the creation and expansion of , a federal program that provides high-quality early care and education to children from low-income families; collaborated on the development of the (CDA), a nationally recognized credential for the field’s educators; and built the first national to demonstrate quality in early learning programs.

Courtesy of NAEYC

But at the same time, the field has been defined by stagnation in critical areas, such as low compensation, insufficient public funding and a lack of professional recognition.

“It’s a lot of ‘two steps forward, one step back,’” said Marcy Whitebook, who co-founded the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) in 1999. “It’s not that we haven’t made progress. It’s that these problems we’ve had for a long time endure.”

Whitebook, a septuagenarian, recalled meeting with other child care workers in the 1970s and 1980s to campaign for better working conditions. At that time, these teachers felt their contributions to society were underpaid and undervalued.

“People who did the work had no rights, raises and respect,” Whitebook said, referencing the of a campaign from that era. “That’s still true.”

Few would dispute that. Early childhood educators today make an average of to care for and teach the nation’s youngest children, according to the CSCCE 2024 Workforce Index — despite a growing body of research and increased awareness among the public that the early years are foundational for learning and development, and deeply connected to a person’s eventual success.

In a of the early childhood workforce, released by NAEYC in February, educators reported high levels of burnout and increasingly unstable personal financial circumstances. One teacher in California said, “I’m constantly worried about making rent and affording groceries, which distracts me during the day.”

Photos from the Boston Area Day Care Workers United, 1976. (Courtesy of the ECHOES Project, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment)

Many teachers are also dealing with the consequences of working in understaffed programs. Teacher turnover remains high and recruitment challenging, largely because many educators leave the field for better-paying jobs elsewhere.

What would most help them stay in the field, the survey respondents said, is better pay and more employee benefits. Instead, many providers are experiencing stagnant federal funding and a perceived reduction in public support.

Carol Brunson Day, who became a NAEYC member in 1969 and later served as the organization’s president, believes that wages and compensation remain the biggest issue facing the field.

“That problem was there when I entered, and it’s still there,” she said. “We’re working on it, but we don’t seem to be getting the kind of traction we should be.”

Day added: “Until we solve that problem, we are still going to have high turnover, which is not just not good for teachers, it’s not good for young children.”

Day also spent 20 years as president of the Council for Professional Recognition, a nonprofit that NAEYC helped form in the 1980s to oversee the administration of the CDA credential.

That credential, she said, has not only helped “produce competent caregivers,” but has also created a pathway for a racially, culturally and linguistically diverse workforce — primarily women — to advance their careers in early childhood education. As a result of getting many community colleges to recognize the CDA and award credits toward an associate degree, some early educators have been able to use their CDA as a springboard to earn four-year degrees and beyond. “It’s not perfect yet,” Day said, “but it’s there.”

Kang called the credential “one of the best first steps into the field of early learning,” noting that at her own son’s high school, students can pursue coursework to earn their CDA before graduation.

“It has represented the path for so many people who would not otherwise have been able to be part of the field,” Kang said.

Even still, it’s not a solution to the lack of professionalization that early childhood educators face. There is still, among much of the public, a perception that adults who care for babies and toddlers are not teaching, but “babysitting.”

Courtesy of the ECHOES Project, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

“We have not gotten to a place where we fully understand, as a community and a country, that these are professionals doing this work,” Kang acknowledged. “We push back against the narrative that anybody who loves children can do this work.”

That misconception likely perpetuates the low compensation in the field and the limited federal investment it receives. If the public and policymakers recognized the importance of the early years, they would, theoretically, want to pay the professionals who work with young children a living wage while also investing public dollars to boost quality and accessibility.

“The entire system depends, basically, on very underpaid people doing the work,” said Whitebook. “The whole thing has been operating on cutting corners with the people who do it.”

Indeed, the current structure of the system is unsustainable, said Kang, resulting in a “” of early care and education. And yet she finds herself thinking back to at least one point in the field’s history when that was perhaps not the case.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in early care and education allowed the field not only to survive the disaster, but to come out of it, in some respects, stronger than before. That was also a time when many families and government leaders referred to early childhood education as “essential,” though Kang said she hasn’t heard that sentiment expressed for several years now.

Courtesy of NAEYC

“There is very little about COVID that I would say we want to go back to,” Kang said, “but I do want to go back to that moment where policymakers on all sides of the political spectrum, families, community leaders recognized the importance of early childhood education and the investment needed to have it work well.”

It proved that it is possible for public dollars to buoy early childhood education and to raise the stature of the professionals who work in the field, she noted.

“I don’t want to see us have another global calamity to get there,” Kang said. But when she reflects on NAEYC’s 100 years and the narrative around high-quality early learning, she said one thing is clear: “We need to support the professionals who are doing this work … so children can get everything they need to become the citizens we want them to be.”

Texas Kindergarten Teacher Reflects on What’s Driven Her to Spur Change

Mark Swartz — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:30:00 +0000

JoMeka Gray had a busy February. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to the State Board for Educator Certification, and the National Education Association (NEA) Foundation presented her with a . Of the five teachers to receive the award, Gray — who teaches kindergarten at Kennedy-Powell STEM Elementary School in Temple, Texas — was the only elementary school teacher recognized, which gave her the opportunity to wave the banner for the first years of school.

While teachers of all grades shape their students’ lives, kindergarten teachers play a unique role in that they build a formative early bridge from home to school. They introduce fundamental academic skills, build foundations for social and emotional development and help young learners develop confidence, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.

“As an educator, my mission has always been clear: to ensure every student, regardless of background, zip code, or circumstance, has access to a high-quality education,” Gray wrote in a published by the NEA Foundation. “I see my work as an act of justice.”

Gray has started a number of programs at her school to support students in need, including working with classes to raise funds to donate to peers and creating opportunities for families to volunteer as tutors. She has also participated in various teacher advocacy efforts. Gray has testified before her state’s legislature about issues such as mentorship and compensation, and has participated in the , which aims to improve the teaching profession and student outcomes.

In the conversation below, she reflects on her career, the importance of mentorship in education and what drives her to make change — whether launching a new initiative at her school or using her voice to advocate for change across her profession.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m curious about your career and how you got to this point.

I have been an educator for 13 years in the public school system in Texas. I have [spent] the majority of my years teaching kindergarten in Temple ISD [Independent School District] in Temple, Texas … but I have taught at multiple campuses with different demographics.

One campus I was at was all about teaching students social-emotional skills … I got a chance to build relationships, and I learned a lot [about] emotional growth.

I had an opportunity to teach my first year at a campus that had … a lot of attendance issues. On my first meet-the-teacher night, I had maybe three parents show up. By the end of the year celebration, every single parent and grandparent showed up. That was probably the turning point to let me know I was in the right space.

What has mentorship meant to you in your career?

Before I started as a teacher, I was working at a day care, and I was in a pre-K 3 class, and that was really my first official class, but it wasn’t at a public school. When I had the opportunity to get my certification, I got a chance to teach in the school district with my mentor, Leah Suchomel, who taught kindergarten. She taught me so many things that I didn’t get in the books or in the classroom. Yes, I learned a lot about … the different theories and Harry [and Rosemary] Wong’s but until you’re actually in a setting with a teacher that is willing to trust you enough to teach her class — and just that compassion that she showed, not only to me but to her students — I still take [that] to this day.

How have you paid that forward as a mentor?

My mentee came from Texas A&M. Her mom was an assistant principal. Her grandma was a teacher. Her aunt was a principal. So she came from a long line of educators, but when she told them she wanted to be a teacher, they asked her, “Are you sure?” Because it is different from when they were teachers.

I thought about what my mentor taught me, and I tried to see what my mentee needed to be successful for when she would become a mentor. It’s like a torch being passed.

How did the pandemic change your experience as a teacher?

During the pandemic, you could see a difference in the social-emotional status of our students. Before the pandemic, we were trying to get kids to learn how to use technology, but after the pandemic, I noticed my students wanted to have me read them big books. They didn’t want to just always be on a tablet to learn. I mean, that’s a tool as well, but they really craved that attention.

Right now, I feel like we have so many students that are having to learn how to regulate their emotions. When they are playing … or working with classmates, they have to learn, How does this person feel before I react? If they’re on an iPad, nobody is there to tell them, “Hey, you’re being rude on this game.” They have to learn … the body language of someone who needs space. They missed a lot of that during their first years of growing up.

You’ve started a few programs and clubs at your school. Why did you start the Stars Helping Stars program?

I started that program when I began here at this school. I saw one of my students that was kind of struggling. I overheard him tell one of his classmates that he had slept in his car last night. And then his mom had called me and let me know that they had lost their housing. So, what I did with our kids — since it’s a STEM campus — we repurposed items from recyclables such as snowglobes, jewelry boxes, guitars, water guns and containers and sold them in order to get gift cards for homeless families at our school.

The next year, that effort evolved into a tutoring group. Parents would come in and tutor kids on Tuesdays before school or after school. … And we saw a significant increase in our students’ accountability.

What about the Breakfast Club program?

Once a month I’ll have mentors that will come through and just do different activities with about a group of 25 kids that range from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade. The high school volleyball team volunteered to come in, and they played volleyball. A group of soldiers came, including my spouse, and they did different stations where they had to talk like a soldier, act like a soldier, sound like a soldier…. Maybe one day they want to grow up to be in the military. We don’t know, but just planting those seeds so they can see things outside of their home and outside of the classroom, that’s the whole point.

Do you think being someone who gets things off the ground is part of why you won this award?

I do believe that it plays a big role. … That and also just being a person of action. That picture behind me — that is me signing with the governor of Texas. (House Bill 2 authorized $8.5 billion in new . A portion of that funding went toward teacher and staff pay raises.) And that day, I sat at the table speaking for 384,000 teachers that are in Texas that needed that extra pay. There were other teachers in different parts of Texas … who had to work pick-up jobs during Christmas just to make ends meet. And I wanted to do something about it. And so just being able to tell our stories together, bring our stories together — to sit and pass a bill of one of the largest allotments that has been passed in Texas.

JoMeka Gray with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Getty Images)

As the only elementary school teacher to win this NEA Foundation award, what do you have to say about the early years?

I think that early childhood sets such a big seed … for our students to have character, to have work ethic, to understand the importance of [this] journey. … I always have kids that end up being best friends, and I have at least one or two that end up being best friends all the way up to high school.

I’ve been teaching long enough to have those memories. Thanks to Facebook, I can see where they tag [me in photos from when] they were in kindergarten and now they are getting ready to graduate. It’s like, “This all because of you, Ms. Gray.”

How do you cultivate friendships and relationships that last a lifetime?

Part of it is the atmosphere in a classroom. It’s just everyone uplifting each other. And if someone doesn’t, if you don’t like what someone else said, it’s okay to disagree, but it’s not okay to just totally not listen to that person.

That’s what some of it is. Also, just being able to have … relationships with families.

Whenever we have parent conferences — I don’t just do the beginning of the year, I do the middle of the year as well because I want [parents] to know that we are partners. The majority of the time they’re here with us, with the teachers, not at home. And so just building their relationship … you can understand like, “Oh, I understand the reason why he may need the extra hug today.”

House Passes Bill to Codify Pilot Program on Child Care Aid for Child Care Workers

Robin Opsahl — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 11:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

The Iowa House passed a measure Monday to make the current pilot program providing free child care for child care workers permanent.

Iowa’s Child Care Assistance (CCA) program is available to parents with a gross monthly income below 250% the federal poverty level, if they are gone during the week days due to their job, schooling, vocational training or state activities. However, Iowans working at least 32 hours a week in the child care field have also been able to access the CCA program outside of the income restrictions through a pilot program implemented in 2023 and extended in subsequent years.

, passed 86-3, would make this program permanent. Rep. Ryan Weldon, R-Ankeny, said since July 2023, 2,105 families have received child care through the CCA pilot program, with the average family receiving support being at 302% of the federal poverty level. The funding for the program has come, and will continue to draw from the state’s Child Care Development Fund, which Weldon said had $112 million in the previous fiscal year, with a projection of carrying forward $107 million in FY 2026 and $91 million in FY 2027, alongside federal funds.

According to the , the bill would have an estimated cost of $11.7 million in FY 2027 — with the state paying $7 million — and $12.1 million in FY 2028, with the state paying $7.3 million.

The bill was amended to require an annual report on state and federal costs, the number of participating families and children and the average household income of those receiving the CCA program support.

Rep. Tracy Ehlert, D-Cedar Rapids, said she was “excited” the bill was introduced, as it was a proposal House Democrats have introduced in previous legislative sessions and Iowans working in child care have called for lawmakers to approve.

“As I have talked to different programs, this is one of the number one things that they said they needed to stay in place to help them,” Ehlert said. “It’s helping communities, it’s helping children, it’s helping our early childhood workforce.”

Another proposal — which survived the first legislative funnel as and — also contains language to codify the CCA pilot program. These companion bills are the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ larger proposal including a shift in some funding from the Early Childhood Iowa system to HHS.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

Growing the Pipeline of Early Childhood Educators

Rebecca Gale — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:00:33 +0000

Cassandra Antoine always knew she wanted to work with children. Her goal was to open her own child care center, but she didn’t have a teaching certificate and worked full time while raising twins. But when her supervisor at the YMCA in Dorchester, Massachusetts, approached her about an apprenticeship program where she could earn a teaching certificate, she realized this was an opportunity she could take on while still working full time.

“I didn’t have to leave my house,” Antoine said. For a full year, from 6:30-9:30 every Wednesday night, Antoine logged on via Zoom with 16 other early childhood educators who participated in the apprenticeship program to receive their Child Development Associate Certificate, or CDA. It took a single year to complete and she was still paid for her time, receiving a $250 stipend every two weeks for taking the class. Each time she completed 500 hours of training, she also received a 50-cent hourly raise at her YMCA job. By the end of the program, she’d completed 2000 hours and received $2 more per hour.

The apprenticeship required a portfolio, work and homework pertaining to early childhood, as well as in-classroom observation and a written test. Antoine felt the year of coursework left her well prepared for that final exam. “It’s not long and it’s not hard,” she said. She passed, and in February of 2024, she joined 67 other apprentices in Neighborhood Village’s first ever graduation ceremony, with her family and friends in the audience.

Their success with the apprenticeship program has allowed for more opportunities for such programs to grow. Neighborhood Villages has received the designation of “ambassador” to support the expansion of Early Childhood Registered Apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts, and serve as a liaison with EOLWD and programs that already have apprentices, or are looking to register new ones.

The graduation ceremony, where Antoine received her CDA, was “a mini wedding” according to Binal Patel, chief program officer with Neighborhood Villages. Three hundred people attended – graduates with their friends and families, and children of their own. Individual names were read and each graduate walked across the stage. The Massachusetts Secretary of Labor delivered the keynote address. (Massachusetts has for its state support of early child care programs, including creation of $475 million in state funding to sustain Commonwealth Cares for Children operational grants, or “C3” grants, which send funds directly to child care programs.)

Now that she has her CDA, Antoine is certified as a K-1 teacher, which includes working with preschool-aged children. “More doors are opening up to me,” she explained. In addition to her raise, she received a promotion at work and is now the assistant director at the YMCA. She’s still exploring opening her own child care center, either in Massachusetts or in her native New York.

The Value of Apprenticeship Programs

are lauded for combining on-the-job training with classroom instruction, so that workers gain skills needed for the job while still having the requisite experience many employers require before hiring. Many apprenticeship programs, like the one Antoine was enrolled in, are also paid, allowing more people from different socioeconomic backgrounds to take part. Upon completion, the certification, license or degree can lead to future earnings opportunities, and for a field like child care which is experiencing a — particularly in leadership fields — these apprenticeship programs can boost the pipeline of qualified staff.

Patel first learned of such early childhood apprenticeship programs at the ECEPTS conference in 2022, where she connected with someone who had helped launch a similar program in Kentucky at the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood. Though Kentucky has registered and started the program, their cohort has not graduated yet, so the Neighborhood Villages cohort is the first in the country to graduate with a Registered Apprenticeship in Early Childhood Administrator/Director through the Department of Labor.

When Neighborhood Villages graduated 68 apprentices in February, this made its program the largest early childhood registered apprenticeship program in Massachusetts. Over half of the graduates (37 participants) received their Child Development Associates and the remaining 31 received their Lead Teacher certificate, which qualifies them to be a child care or preschool director. The program and its graduation were successful enough that six of the CDA graduates are now continuing on with the Emerging Leaders Program.

Hope Olson is of those recent graduates who is going on to the Emerging Leaders Program. Olson grew up in New Hampshire about an hour from the sea coast and was always drawn to outdoor activities. She majored in environmental studies in college and upon graduation began working at the Boston Outdoor Preschool Network, a nature-based early childhood program.

“I haven’t ever thought of it as a switch, actually,” she said, regarding her pivot from environmental studies to teaching. “I was drawn to the job because I’ve always worked with children. It combined my love for outdoor education with children and working with children.” But Olson recognized that she didn’t have the traditional background for teaching, and when her supervisor mentioned the apprenticeship program, she enrolled. Like Antoine, she was emphatic about the experience, coursework and graduation ceremony. “Adding on this program made me feel capable in this role,” she said. Once she completed her CDA, she enrolled in the Emerging Leaders Program, and plans to keep learning while teaching. “These are stepping stones to pursue teaching further or find myself in a director role,” she said.

Funding the Neighborhood Villages Apprenticeship Program

The Neighborhood Villages’ Apprenticeship Program is managed by Neighborhood Villages but features a variety of funding sources, including the City of Boston, which boosted American Rescue Plan funds, and the State’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Labor. There was also private philanthropic support for the initial cohort, but Patel said they anticipate that the program will be primarily funded by EOLWD going forward.

Their success with the apprenticeship program has allowed for more opportunities for such programs to grow. Neighborhood Villages has received the designation of “ambassador” to support the expansion of Early Childhood Registered Apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts, and serve as a liaison with EOLWD and programs who already have apprentices, or are looking to register new ones.

Patel explains that they are consulting with organizations that would like to register their programs to ensure they know the process and required paperwork and components, including registering the program with the YMCA and working with For Kids Only to register the first out-of-school time educator apprenticeship program. Other states have heard about their program, and reach out for information and assistance.

“Registered apprenticeships are fairly new in this industry and are continuing to grow very quickly!” Patel said.

This year, Patel plans to present at three national conferences to share their work on apprenticeship and everything they have learned, including returning to the conference where she first learned about apprenticeships, in hope of inspiring another person to start their own. She is returning to the same conference she went to in 2022, “Except this time I was invited as a presenter!” she said. “I am excited to share about our program and all of the lessons we have learned, and hopefully inspire others that they can do it too!”

Erikson Institute’s New, Fully Funded Master’s Program for Educators of Color in Chicago

Mark Swartz — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 11:00:06 +0000

new is designed to prepare teachers to teach in underinvested communities. The program combines early education, special education and bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL). Erikson is fielding applications from career changers (with a bachelor’s degree in something other than education) as well as individuals who are in the classroom as assistant teachers or another role.

Classes start May 15. .

“When children have teachers who reflect them, who look like they do, they’re more likely to do well in school,” says Sandra Osorio, associate professor of raciolinguistic justice and director of teacher education.

Osorio, who came to Erikson last summer from Illinois State University, says her move was partly inspired by Erikson’s new president, Mariana Souto-Manning, who is seeking to redress inequities and injustices in early childhood teaching and teacher education. Souto-Manning says she hopes graduates of the program will “ensure that the brilliance of children who have historically been marginalized or come from disinvested communities continues to shine.”

An advisory council of local educators is taking part in the program’s design, signaling what they need in their communities.

“We don’t want a tourist view of the city,” she says. “We want this to be for the real Chicago.”

Chrishana Lloyd, researcher at Child Trends, says, “An educated citizenry is one of the most important assets of a nation. This program’s emphasis on opening educational doors to those who are typically shut out has the potential to strengthen the lifelong prospects of those who engage in the program, as well as positively influence endless generations of children and families who benefit from access to well prepared and highly skilled early care and education professionals.

Three qualities distinguish the new program, which Osorio sees as “a blueprint that other universities can take up”:

1. Integrating Certification

Traditionally, graduate students at Erikson would earn their early childhood licensure and then add special education or English as a Second Language (ESL), aspects of early education that are traditionally presented in isolation. It would take three years, and the tuition costs were often prohibitive. Erikson integrates the content, so participants master a wider range of issues they are likely to encounter in the real world.

“Multilingual students are everywhere, and so are students with identified disabilities,” says Osorio. “As a teacher, you’d better be prepared.”

Osorio herself was born in Chicago and went to bilingual preschool in the basement of her church. When she started kindergarten, her parents were advised to stop speaking Spanish at home—even though the research then and now . Early in her career, she taught Head Start to the children of migrant farm workers. She repeatedly encountered administrators and educators who tried to “squash” Spanish. Erikson is cultivating a space where multilingualism is welcome.

2. An Assets-Based Approach

When we talk about kindergarten readiness, what are we really talking about?

For Osorio, the traditional orientation means: “the child’s lacking something. There’s something wrong with them.” The new program views children from a different angle. It encourages teachers to ask, in Osorio’s words, “What is the wealth and knowledge they have? How can we bring their languages into the classroom space?”

This shift in perspective signals a departure from what Osorio terms “ethnocentric white scholarship that doesn’t really speak to students of color.” She and the Erikson team are reinventing the curriculum to incorporate a new wave of scholarship that intentionally includes researchers of color who use an asset-based perspective. The shift entails recognizing that there is no “normal” child. Children show up in preschool with a wide variety of abilities, skills and knowledge, and it’s the educator’s job to support all of them.

According to Osorio, “The number one thing I’ve heard from the teachers we’ve recruited is, ‘Are we going to learn about autism? Are we going to learn what supports we can give? How do we support parents? What am I supposed to be doing?’ Everybody wants to know how to support children.”

3. Full Tuition Grants

Thanks to philanthropic support, Educator Impact Grants will enable four cohorts of 30 educators to go through the program with minimal fees. “One of the interviewees told us, ‘I didn’t ever think I was ever going to be able to do this, but now I can’,” says Osorio.

“That’s the icing on the cake,” says Lloyd. “No debt. In this climate and economy, the Erikson program is worthy of celebration.”

To qualify for the grant, participants need to sign a service agreement saying they will teach four years in an underinvested community. Osorio says she expects that while some graduates will seek positions at new facilities, others will remain in same schools and centers, ready to take on new responsibilities. “They are part of the community,” she says, “and they plan to stay in the community.”

Educator Impact Grants include a two-year professional learning community post-graduation. Groups of 10 graduates will meet every month with a faculty member to discuss topics decided on by the participants, who will earn professional development credit.

Full-time students in the new master’s program will take four courses at a time, graduating in three semesters (summer, fall, spring). Others will opt to take two courses at a time, and they’ll finish in six semesters.

Initially, the program will be hybrid in-person and virtual, and Erikson plans to launch a fully virtual option next year.

Kathy Maness: Lifting Up Teachers to Lift Early Learning

Early Learning Nation Editors — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 14:39:57 +0000

Kathy Maness has observed and engaged in education from many directions: as a teacher, executive, NLC President, Lexington (SC) City Councilmember and a parent. She knows how difficult Covid has been on early education, including young learners who had to start school without entering an actual classroom. That’s among the reasons Maness calls for local elected officials and communities to lift up their teachers to provide the support needed to build America’s early learning programs to full strength.

Chris Riback: Councilmember Maness, thank you so much for joining us today.

Kathy Maness: Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.

Chris Riback: You are the immediate past president of NLC. What did you see in early childhood learning during your time? You had that role during some of the most difficult times imaginable.

Kathy Maness: Right.

Chris Riback: What’s the state of early learning in our nation today?

Kathy Maness: Early learning is so important and during the pandemic, it played a huge part because many of our childcare centers were open for parents who had to work. A lot of parents were working from home, but we had essential employees who had to go into work. And thank heavens our early learning centers were open to provide the needed childcare for those parents.

Chris Riback: None of us wanted to go through that. Did you feel on some level that it took a crisis to raise some awareness around an area that I’m sure you already knew the criticality of?

Kathy Maness: Unfortunately, yes, it did. I have had wonderful childcare centers for my children and now my granddaughter. So I know the importance of quality early learning, but it did take this crisis for our community to realize. Hey, they could open. They were there to help families. They were there to help our communities. And most importantly, they were there for our young children during this time.

Chris Riback: You, of course, have an incredible vantage point both locally in Lexington, South Carolina but also because of your roles and your national involvement nationally. How would you characterize the range of what you see in our communities nationwide?

Kathy Maness: Well, I was the president of the National League of Cities during a very difficult time for our cities, towns, and villages across America. And we saw where communities were closing. We saw how our city halls, our town halls, had to do a balancing act to keep our employees there, not having shutdowns, deciding what we were going to do to keep our community safe.

Chris Riback: So many competing priorities.

Kathy Maness: That’s right. And our early childhood learning centers were there as a partner to us as local elected leaders to help try to make things normal when they really weren’t. And I am so thankful for our early learning centers and our early learning community, that they were there for us.

Chris Riback: Everyone grasping for just a sliver of normalcy.

Kathy Maness: Right.

Chris Riback: An hour of normalcy- [crosstalk].

Kathy Maness: Yes.

Chris Riback: Is what it felt like. Given what you’ve seen and given what you know from your experience, what guidance might you have for local elected officials who might be struggling with those tensions, the competing tensions of priorities, health needs, environmental needs, infrastructure needs, employment needs, education needs in their communities? Any guidance that you would give them around, from based on what you’ve seen, around how to prioritize or make sure that early learning stays part of the focus?

Kathy Maness: Early learning and education is very important to me. I have a master’s in early childhood education. I’m a former third grade teacher. That’s still considered an early childhood, and it is my passion. And it is important that to us, as local elected officials, to know that these young children are our future. They’re going to take my place one day. They’re going to be a Councilwoman or a Councilman in the town of Lexington, South Carolina. They are going to be the president of the National League of Cities. And we’ve got to be there early for them to help them learn, to help them grow, to encourage them. And that’s what we saw through our early learning centers during this pandemic.

Chris Riback: Thinking back to your previous self as a third grade teacher, and I’m willing to bet that once a third grade teacher, always a third grade teacher- [crosstalk].

Kathy Maness: Always. That’s right.

Chris Riback: I’m sure. But thinking back to you at that point, whatever point that was in your life, what would you say to teachers today, to caregivers today about the stresses that they are feeling and some who might be questioning, “Can I do this again another day?”

Kathy Maness: That is a great question for me because I left the third grade classroom and went to work for Palmetto State Teachers Association. I’m now the executive director of the largest professional association for teachers in South Carolina. I hear it every day and it breaks my heart the stresses that our teachers are under. Our children have experienced losing that year or- [crosstalk].

Chris Riback: Yes.

Kathy Maness: A year and a half.

Chris Riback: Such loss.

Kathy Maness: And it’s showing. When we started this year, we had to teach children how to be in a classroom again. And for our early learners, it’s the first time they’ve been in a classroom. So they missed that kindergarten year being in there where they were able to learn by play and to learn how to be a part of a community, part of a classroom. And it is hard. It is hard on our teachers now. And we, as local elected officials and as communities, need to lift our educators up, our early learning educators all the way through high school. We need to lift them up and let them know, “You are important, and we know that you are making a difference in the lives of children, starting with our early learners.”

Chris Riback: Making that difference every day.

Kathy Maness: Every day.

Chris Riback: What’s next for Lexington, South Carolina?

Kathy Maness: Well, we are coming back. We did a good job during the pandemic. We have a fabulous town administrator. I have a fabulous staff at our town and our council, so we’re coming back. We’re doing things for early learners. We’re redoing our beautiful park downtown, making it more friendly for families and young children. And that is so important that we’re doing that. But I just appreciate the cities, towns, and villages across America, as they worked very hard during this pandemic to respond, recover, and now we are rebuilding. And for many of us, it’s better than ever.

Chris Riback: It’s time to visit Lexington, South Carolina, isn’t it?

Kathy Maness: Please come to Lexington, South Carolina. I am so proud of my town.

Chris Riback: Well, I’ll go there for a number of reasons, including, I appreciate your having come to the studio.

Kathy Maness: Thank you. [crosstalk].

Chris Riback: Thank you so much.

Kathy Maness: Thank you.