ReportWire

Tag: Child Care

  • What the US can teach other countries about home-based child care

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    Each day, nearly 70 percent of the world’s children are cared for and educated by adults other than their parents in home-based settings, many of which are informal and run by women. (In the United States, it’s about 30 percent.) In many countries, these home-based settings receive little financial or training support from their governments. 

    This summer, I moderated a panel made up of global child care experts at the National Association for Family Child Care’s (NAFCC) global learning convening. The event marked the first time that the association brought together child care leaders from across the globe to share their expertise in how family child care works in their countries. About 1,000 people attended, including representatives from Bangladesh, Ecuador, South Africa and the United States, to discuss how early learning programs face similar challenges around the world, including low pay and a lack of respect. Attendees also discussed progress securing funding and more awareness and recognition for the sector.  

    The session I moderated, on home-based child care policy and advocacy, featured Grace Matlhape as one of the panelists. Matlhape is the chief executive director of SmartStart, a nonprofit that supports high-quality home-based early learning programs in South Africa.

    The organization’s model, which trains community members to teach a play-based curriculum and run their own early learning programs, has been found to decrease achievement gaps between higher- and lower-income children. 

    In early 2025, after advocacy from Matlhape and other early childhood organizations, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he would prioritize the early years in his education agenda, acknowledging the country is decades behind in the field. The government also dedicated $500 million to expand early childhood development programs to some of the country’s 1.3 million young children not already enrolled in early care. That number represents about 18 percent of the country’s 0-5 population.

    I recently caught up with Matlhape to hear more about progress she is seeing in South Africa, stereotypes of home-based care and which countries she’s looking to for guidance as the sector continues to grow. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    Grace Matlhape is the chief executive director of SmartStart, a nonprofit that supports high-quality home-based early learning programs in South Africa. Credit: Courtesy SmartStart

    What is the landscape of early childhood in South Africa?

    Up to now, South Africa’s main approach is center-based child care. There’s still a gap in access, it’s not equitably accessible, but the main seen, acknowledged, recognized and regulated mode of child care is center-based care. 

    SmartStart is the first organization to look at home-based care as a model to build. Having said that, South Africa is very similar to the U.S. in that the early childhood care education is market-driven. The government does not run programs directly. From time to time, they may have a school here and a preschool there, but in the early years, government is not the main provider of programs. SmartStart is the first organization that decided to build [home-based care] into a national model that becomes acceptable even to policy makers.

    Why are you focusing on home-based care? 

    It enables rapid setup, because it avoids all of the lead times in buildings and so on. It lowers the cost when you take away all of the infrastructure investments required. It’s community-based. People have very strong local relationships, for example, a shopkeeper down the road delivers bread every day. It builds on this very strong local culture of looking after children and just investing in their care and their stimulation.

    We recruit our providers within close proximity to one another so that they can form into communities of practice to support one another. It’s a very powerful vehicle of building belonging and identity. It creates cultural acceptability very quickly. 

    Finally, we’ve seen fantastic child outcomes compared to the national average in South Africa. Many of [the programs] are in informal housing in very, very poor environments, but their child outcomes outperform the national average. We think it is a matter of good child ratios. You can’t have a massive class of children at a home. You have children in smaller groups, and we think that’s the answer.

    What challenges have you encountered? 

    It is really hard for people to let go of this overreliance on quality associated with physical structures. People expect to see quality with their eyes, whereas what we are seeing in home-based child care is the experience and the love and attention, and the power of practicing good pedagogy between one loving practitioner and a handful of children. That’s the secret sauce. And so it’s been a challenge just to change mindsets, for people to see child care, home-based child care, in that way. 

    This summer you came to Dallas and met with other home-based child care experts from around the world. Did anything stick out to you regarding how South Africa’s home-based landscape compares to other countries?

    What was very different in the U.S. is just how mature the sector is. It’s significantly more mature. It has matured to a practitioner-led advocacy level, with a platform like NAFCC and people who are leading the organization! [In South Africa], it is very strongly practitioner led. We are still on that journey of the practitioner representing themselves and driving advocacy in their own provinces or states. It gave me a sense of what the future might look like, the power in the practitioner-led alliance or coalition. 

    What are your goals moving forward?

    We’ve actually moved into the zone now of regulation and funding by the government. We co-founded an advocacy organization about three to four years ago with other early childhood development organizations in South Africa. We’ve invested in policy research on what’s going on around the world [in early childhood]. My colleagues really invested in understanding what home-based child care looks like, particularly in Latin America — we drew a lot from that. And we are partnering with the government, with the Department of Education. As insights emerge, we partner with them to say, ‘This is what the research says. These are the trends.’ We are very effectively influencing policy in South Africa by getting the president to announce early childhood as one of the apex priorities for our government. We are trying to make early childhood development in general, and promoting home-based child care as a first tier approach, a societal priority. 

    This story about home-based child care was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    Since you made it to the bottom of this article, we have a small favor to ask. 

    We’re in the midst of our end-of-year campaign, our most important fundraising effort of the year. Thanks to NewsMatch, every dollar you give will be doubled through December 31.

    If you believe stories like the one you just finished matter, please consider pitching in what you can. This effort helps ensure our reporting and resources stay free and accessible to everyone—teachers, parents, policymakers—invested in the future of education.

    Thank you. 
    Liz Willen
    Editor in chief

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  • Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators

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    Close to 40,000 foreign-born child care workers have been driven out of the profession in the wake of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation and detainment efforts, according to a new study by the Better Life Lab at the think tank New America. That represents about 12 percent of the foreign-born child care workforce.

    Child care workers with at least a two-year college degree are most likely to be leaving the workforce, as well as workers who are from Mexico, a demographic targeted by ICE, or those who work in center-based care, the left-leaning think tank found. The disruption has worsened an already deep shortage of child care staffers, threatening the stability of the industry and in turn is contributing to tens of thousands of U.S.-born mothers dropping out of the labor market because they don’t have reliable child care.

    In addition to workers facing detainment or deportation, many people are staying home to avoid situations where they may encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the report found. Agents are detaining people who have not traditionally been the focus of ICE actions, including those following legal pathways like asylum seekers and green card applicants. Child care centers were once considered “sensitive locations” exempt from ICE enforcement, but the White House rescinded that in January. In at least one example, a child care worker was detained while arriving for work at a child care program. 

    “What’s different now is the ferocity of the enforcement,” said Chris Herbst, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Public Affairs and one of the authors of the report, in an interview with The Hechinger Report. “ICE is arresting far more people, the number of deportations has risen dramatically,” he added. “People are scared out of their minds.”

    Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

    America has long relied on immigrants to fill hard-to-staff caregiving positions and enable parents to work. Across the country, around 1 in 5 child care workers is an immigrant. In Florida and New York, immigrants account for nearly 40 percent of the child care workforce. One study that compared native-born and immigrant child care workers found that nearly 64 percent of immigrants had a two- or four-year college degree, compared to 53 percent of native-born workers. The study also noted that immigrant workers are more likely than native-born workers to have child development associate credentials and to invest in professional development activities.

    Overall, the child care industry supports more than $152 billion in economic activity.

    In Wisconsin, Elaine, the director of a child care center, said her program has benefited greatly from a Ukrainian immigrant who has been teaching there for two years, ever since arriving in the United States as part of a humanitarian parole program. (The Hechinger Report is not using Elaine’s last name or the city where her child care center is located because she fears action by immigration enforcement.) Elaine’s center has experienced a teacher shortage for the past 13 years, and the immigrant, who has a college degree and past experience in social services, has been a steady presence for the children there.

    “She’s their consistent person. She spends more time than a lot of the parents do with the children during their waking hours,” Elaine said. “She’s there for them, she’s loving, she provides that support, that connection, that security that young children need.”

    In January, the Trump administration suspended the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allowed Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to live and work in the United States for two years. While the program later opened up a process to apply for an extension, Elaine’s employee has encountered delays, like many others.

    The teacher’s parole expired this month. Under the law, she is now supposed to return to Ukraine, where her home city in southeast Ukraine is still under attack by Russian forces. 

    Elaine fears what will happen if the center loses her. “As a business, we need her. We need a teacher we can count on,” Elaine said. “For our teachers’ mental health, to have her leave and knowing where she would go would be really difficult.” 

    Elaine has decided to allow the employee to keep working, and is appealing to state lawmakers to help extend her stay. Several parents have also joined in the effort, writing letters to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin telling her how much their children love the teacher — and how important she is to the local economy. One factor in granting an extension is that the person offers a “significant public benefit” to the country. 

    The authors of the new report found immigrants are not the only caregivers affected by ICE enforcement this year. There has also been a drop in U.S.-born child care workers in the industry, especially among Hispanic and less-educated caregivers. This could be the result of a “climate of fear and confusion” surrounding enforcement activity, according to the report, as well as a “perceived pattern of profiling or discriminatory enforcement practices.”

    “These deportations have been sold under the theory that they are going to be a boon for U.S.-born workers once we sort of unclog the labor market by removing large numbers of undocumented immigrants,” Herbst said. “We’re finding at least in the child care industry, and at least in the short run, that appears not to be the case.” Some foreign-born and U.S.-born workers have different skills and do not seem to be competing for the same caregiving jobs, he added. 

    Not all workers are leaving the caregiving industry altogether. Some immigrants are shifting to work as nannies or au pairs, Herbst said, “finding refuge” in private homes where they are less likely to come into contact with state child care regulators or be part of formal wage systems. (Already, an estimated 142,000 undocumented immigrants work as nannies and personal care or home health aides nationwide.) That contact with regulators and other authorities may be a reason why center-based early childhood educators are leaving the field in greater proportions now, Herbst said. 

    These findings come at the end of a difficult year for the child care workforce, which has long been in crisis due to dismally low pay and challenging work conditions. More than half of child care providers surveyed this year by the RAPID Survey Project at Stanford University reported experiencing difficulty affording food, the highest rate since the survey started collecting data on provider hunger in 2021. Other recent reports have found child care providers are at a higher risk for clinical depression, and in some cities an increasing number are taking on part-time jobs to make ends meet.

    Across the country this year, early childhood providers have seen drops in enrollment as families pull their children out of schools and programs to avoid ICE. Child care centers are losing money and finding that some staff members are too scared to come to work or have lost work authorization after the administration ended certain refugee programs. Many child care workers have taken on additional roles driving children to and from care, collecting emergency numbers and plans for children in their care in case parents are detained and dropping off food for families too scared to leave their homes.

    This story about immigration enforcement was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    Since you made it to the bottom of this article, we have a small favor to ask. 

    We’re in the midst of our end-of-year campaign, our most important fundraising effort of the year. Thanks to NewsMatch, every dollar you give will be doubled through December 31.

    If you believe stories like the one you just finished matter, please consider pitching in what you can. This effort helps ensure our reporting and resources stay free and accessible to everyone—teachers, parents, policymakers—invested in the future of education.

    Thank you. 
    Liz Willen
    Editor in chief

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    Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

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    Jackie Mader

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  • 5 cheat sheets for parents of preschoolers

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    When my oldest child was a 2-year-old, we relocated to a new state and I found myself back at square one with my search for child care. In my new city, I now had a very good problem: There was an abundance of programs with availability, and I had a choice of where to enroll my son. As I toured a half-dozen of them, however, I worried that even as an early childhood reporter, I wasn’t asking the right questions or paying attention to the right thing. 

    A few months later, our early childhood team at Hechinger launched a project digging into the elements of a high-quality preschool. That article and the corresponding video became a quick and easy guide as I looked at options for my second child. It’s what I sent to friends who asked me for advice while navigating their own searches. 

    While I love telling stories from the field, my colleagues and I are also passionate about providing helpful tools and guides for teachers and caregivers. Here are a few of my favorite early ed “cheat sheets” from our decade of reporting on early childhood.

    1.  The five elements of a good preschool: What should you look for when you step inside a preschool classroom? What clues can you find on the walls or bookshelves? What questions should you ask teachers and school administrators? This video and article break it down. While classrooms and programs will vary by setting, many of these elements, like the way teachers talk to children and an emphasis on play, apply everywhere.

    2. Cracking down on unsafe sleep products: As an anxious new parent, nothing scared me more than hearing about infant deaths due to unsafe sleep products. Still, when desperate and exhausted, I tried several items that I heard would help my babies sleep, including some that the American Academy of Pediatrics later discouraged in updated safe sleep guidelines in 2022. While reporting this article, I was stunned by the lack of evidence and oversight of products that many parents like myself believe are tested before they are available to buy.

    3. How to boost math skills by talking about math with your kids: Most parents know how important it is to read to children. But did you know that there are easy ways caregivers can develop math skills? Earlier this year, my colleague Jill Barshay looked at a wave of research from the past dozen years on simple things adults can do to lay an early foundation in math. 

    4. How to answer tough questions about race and racism with your children: Research shows racial stereotypes start early, and that’s why it’s important to talk to young children about different races and read books and offer toys that have diverse characters. Many parents feel ill equipped for these conversations, however. In 2020, I asked three experts how they would respond to real questions from young kids about race and racism so adults feel better prepared for the questions that children inevitably ask.

    5. How parents can support their kids with play: With all the challenges of being a parent, it can be hard to hear there’s yet another thing we should be doing. But this 2023 conversation with researcher Charlotte Anne Wright helped me reframe the way I think about play and my role in it with my own children. While it’s important to give children opportunities for free play, Wright’s research shows “guided play,” or play with a learning goal in mind and light support from a parent, can have benefits for children, too. It’s not as heavy of a lift as it sounds, and Wright provides simple ways parents can engage in playful learning with their children on bus rides and trips to the laundromat.

    This story about preschoolers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    Since you made it to the bottom of this article, we have a small favor to ask. 

    We’re in the midst of our end-of-year campaign, our most important fundraising effort of the year. Thanks to NewsMatch, every dollar you give will be doubled through December 31.

    If you believe stories like the one you just finished matter, please consider pitching in what you can. This effort helps ensure our reporting and resources stay free and accessible to everyone—teachers, parents, policymakers—invested in the future of education.

    Thank you. 
    Liz Willen
    Editor in chief

    Creative Commons License

    Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

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    Jackie Mader

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  • FAA gives $10K bonuses only to controllers and technicians with perfect attendance during shutdown

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    Only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.

    A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month and they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn’t afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.

    President Donald Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.

    Thousands of FAA technicians also had to work during the shutdown to maintain the equipment that air traffic controllers rely on. At least 6,600 technicians were expected to work throughout the shutdown but more than 3,000 others were subject to be recalled to work.

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of these few workers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown. In a post on X he described it as “Santa’s coming to town a little early.”

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    “These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Duffy said in his formal announcement.

    The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said only 311 of its more than 10,000 members will receive the bonuses. The union said these workers with perfect attendance deserve recognition but so do the others.

    “We are concerned that thousands of air traffic controllers who consistently reported for duty during the shutdown, ensuring the safe transport of passengers and cargo across the nation, while working without pay and uncertain of when they would receive compensation, were excluded from this recognition. More than 311 of these dedicated professionals were instrumental in keeping America moving,” the union said in a statement.

    The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the thousands of technicians it represents worked hard to keep the aging computer and radar systems controllers use operating during the shutdown, and they should all be recognized — not just the 423 getting bonuses.

    “It took many hands to ensure that not one delay during the historic 43-day shutdown was attributed to equipment or system failures,” the union said in a statement.

    Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen questioned why all the controllers and others who worked to keep flights moving during during the shutdown won’t get bonuses.

    “For the Trump administration to not give a bonus to every single one of these hardworking women and men is wrong; they all deserve a bonus and back pay,” said Larsen, who is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.

    The controllers union said they hope to work with Duffy to find a way to recognize all the other air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown.

    Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that any TSA officers who went “above and beyond” while working without pay would get $10,000 bonuses, but she never specified how many will qualify beyond the handful of checks she handed out to officers at a news conference.

    The FAA was already critically short on air traffic controllers before the shutdown. Duffy had been working to boost controller hiring and streamline the years of training required in the hope of eliminating the shortage over the next several years.

    Duffy has said that some students and controllers quit and more experienced controllers retired during the shutdown. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.

    As more controllers missed work, the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights to relieve pressure on the system. Duffy said repeatedly that FAA safety experts became worried as the absences grew because of reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions.

    Since the shutdown ended, controller staffing has improved significantly and airlines were allowed to resume normal operations this week.

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  • Her mom was in foster care, now she’s paying it forward – WTOP News

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    A daughter’s love: What drives the acting head of D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency to do what she does.

    Tanya Torres Trice and her mother, who was in foster care. (WTOP/Jimmy Alexander)

    Tanya Torres Trice has spent nearly the last 17 years working for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency.

    The licensed social worker, who is currently the CSFA’s acting director, started her career on the front line as a case carrying supervisor.

    Trice told WTOP that Mayor Muriel Bowser’s goal is keep families together, which is an objective that is near and dear to her heart.

    “My mom was in foster care. She never was adopted,” said Trice. “A special social worker kept my mom and her family together.”

    Those three sentences would not only create Trice’s career path, which included getting her master’s degree in social work from Western Michigan University, but it would cause her to look at foster kids in a special way.

    “In their faces I see my mom,” said Trice. “I see in them a chance. I see love. I see in them the opportunity to just be connected to something so big and important and that will last their lifetime.”

    At a celebration on the 39th National Adoption Day, the agency shined a spotlight on the more than 60 children and youth that now have a forever family.

    While there are 530 kids in D.C. who are in foster care, Trice pointed out that 100 of them are ready for adoption and they are always looking for foster families.

    “I don’t want any kid to stay in foster care any longer than they have to, and I know that there are people out there that are really willing to step up and give love and support to the family,” said Trice.

    According to Trice, the age range of the children go from infant to 18 — and some to 21.

    Trice said she truly loves her job and working with everyone at the agency, along with Bowser’s leadership.

    “My why is much bigger than me, and I am here to just continue making sure families can stay together,” said Trice.

    If you have room in your heart and home for a foster child, visit the Child and Family Services Agency website or call 202-671-LOVE.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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  • ‘Backbone of the economy’: North Texas child care leaders stress workforce role

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    Three-year-olds play while being cared for at Kids’ Place Child Development Center on Jan. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.

    Three-year-olds play while being cared for at Kids’ Place Child Development Center on Jan. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.


    Amanda McCoy

    amccoy@star-telegram.com

    Local child care providers underscored their role as the workforce behind the workforce during a panel discussion this week that was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week North Texas.

    Owners and operators of child care programs across Dallas-Fort Worth gathered on Thursday night at Spark, a coworking space in Arlington, to share insights on how their sector serves the economy as a whole while outlining what obstacles they face alongside families in need of care and early childhood education. Texas is estimated to be losing out on $9.4 billion annually because of child care woes, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

    “Child care is the backbone of the economy and the workforce,” said Jerletha McDonald of ADFW Family Child Care Network, who moderated the discussion.

    “When educators open up their homes (and) centers each morning, they’re not just caring for children, they’re making it possible for parents to work, for businesses to run and for communities to thrive,” she said.

    The panel included:

    • Carmeia White, Kami’s Home Daycare
    • Roslyn Chaney, Future Scholars’ 24/7 Childcare and Transportation
    • Wa’Keisha Chase, Little Einstein’s Learning Center
    • Danyell Smith, Journeys Child Development Center
    • Monicha Neal, Treasure Chest Learning Center

    Chaney’s and White’s home-based programs are open 24 hours to accommodate parents who don’t work traditional 9-5 shifts. They serve parents who work in hospitals, manufacturing plants and restaurants, for example. White noted how she can have a child in her care for 14 hours on a Sunday so that their parents can go to work.

    “We allow them to accept jobs so they can increase their income and stay employed,” Chaney said.

    Jerletha McDonald of ADFW Family Child Care Network, left, moderates a panel discussion about child care entrepreneurship on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, at Spark coworking space in Arlington during Global Entrepreneur Week North Texas. The pictured panelists, from left to right, are child care providers from across Dallas-Fort Worth: Monicha Neal, Carmeia White, Danyell Smith, Roslyn Chaney and Wa’Keisha Chase.
    Jerletha McDonald of ADFW Family Child Care Network, left, moderates a panel discussion about child care entrepreneurship on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, at Spark coworking space in Arlington during Global Entrepreneur Week North Texas. The pictured panelists, from left to right, are child care providers from across Dallas-Fort Worth: Monicha Neal, Carmeia White, Danyell Smith, Roslyn Chaney and Wa’Keisha Chase. Lina Ruiz lruiz@star-telegram.com

    The providers said they’ve had issues with staffing and navigating the state’s child care subsidy system, which provides scholarships to low-income families. The waiting list for this financial assistance has more than 100,000 children statewide.

    “Finding someone that actually can pass a background (check) and that would actually be qualified to be employed with us is a huge challenge,” said Chase of Little Einstein’s Learning Center.

    “Not only that, but the challenging behaviors of the children. There has been an uptick in the amount of children that we’re receiving that are possibly on the spectrum, and the teachers that we’re able to employ don’t want to come and work for the amount that we’re able to pay them,” she said.

    McDonald, the moderator of the discussion, asked providers what lawmakers can do to help the child care sector thrive and address the obstacles they’re facing. Chaney echoed Chase’s point about serving children with special needs, calling for more resources around inclusion training to be made available to early educators. Additional funding for scholarships will take children off the waiting list and create a domino effect that increases enrollment for providers so more families can be served, Chaney said.

    “I think there should be higher reimbursement rates, workforce resources for the staff, and 24-hour child care has to be recognized as essential infrastructure,” Chaney added.

    McDonald said providers need to band together and advocate for these changes to move forward. She highlighted a few pieces of legislation that were passed by lawmakers during the state’s recent legislative session earlier this year.

    There was $100 million allocated for child care scholarships through funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF, that was expected to serve about 10,000 children over the next two years. But rising child care costs have caused part of this investment to be absorbed by inflation, according to Texans Care for Children. Other bills addressed red tape for home-based providers and prioritized early educators eligible for scholarships for their own families through the state’s waiting list.

    “We need to advocate for one bill across the state of Texas saying that we need more money going towards our Child Care Development Block Grant. That’s where the funding comes in to support our programs,” McDonald said of the federal funding source that provides subsidized child care services to eligible families.

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lina Ruiz

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.

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  • FAA bonuses given to air traffic controllers with perfect attendance during shutdown

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    Only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.

    A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month and they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn’t afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.

    President Donald Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.

    Thousands of FAA technicians also had to work during the shutdown to maintain the equipment that air traffic controllers rely on. At least 6,600 technicians were expected to work throughout the shutdown but more than 3,000 others were subject to be recalled to work.

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of these few workers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown. In a post on X he described it as “Santa’s coming to town a little early.”

    “These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Duffy said in his formal announcement.

    The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said only 311 of its more than 10,000 members will receive the bonuses. The union said these workers with perfect attendance deserve recognition but so do the others.

    “We are concerned that thousands of air traffic controllers who consistently reported for duty during the shutdown, ensuring the safe transport of passengers and cargo across the nation, while working without pay and uncertain of when they would receive compensation, were excluded from this recognition. More than 311 of these dedicated professionals were instrumental in keeping America moving,” the union said in a statement.

    The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the thousands of technicians it represents worked hard to keep the aging computer and radar systems controllers use operating during the shutdown, and they should all be recognized — not just the 423 getting bonuses.

    “It took many hands to ensure that not one delay during the historic 43-day shutdown was attributed to equipment or system failures,” the union said in a statement.

    Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen questioned why all the controllers and others who worked to keep flights moving during during the shutdown won’t get bonuses.

    “For the Trump administration to not give a bonus to every single one of these hardworking women and men is wrong; they all deserve a bonus and back pay,” said Larsen, who is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.

    The controllers union said they hope to work with Duffy to find a way to recognize all the other air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown.

    Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that any TSA officers who went “above and beyond” while working without pay would get $10,000 bonuses, but she never specified how many will qualify beyond the handful of checks she handed out to officers at a news conference.

    The FAA was already critically short on air traffic controllers before the shutdown. Duffy had been working to boost controller hiring and streamline the years of training required in the hope of eliminating the shortage over the next several years.

    Duffy has said that some students and controllers quit and more experienced controllers retired during the shutdown. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.

    As more controllers missed work, the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights to relieve pressure on the system. Duffy said repeatedly that FAA safety experts became worried as the absences grew because of reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions.

    Since the shutdown ended, controller staffing has improved significantly and airlines were allowed to resume normal operations this week.

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  • Child care expenses top the cost of rent in dozens of U.S. cities, analysis finds. See where.

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    As child care costs soar, many Americans today find themselves paying more for a caregiver than they do for their monthly rent, according to a new analysis. 

    Child care costs for parents with two kids exceed rental costs in 85 of the country’s largest metro areas, personal finance site LendingTree found. In Omaha, Neb., Milwaukee, Wis., and Buffalo, N.Y., which have the highest child care costs in the country relative to local rents, families with an infant and a 4-year-old under care on average pay more than double the cost of their rent.

    Families around the U.S. pay an average of $1,282 for full-time infant care, still below the average monthly cost to rent a two-bedroom unit, LendingTree’s data shows. Families with two children, on the other hand, spend an average of $2,252 per month on child care.

    LendingTree, which determined how child care costs stack up against rent in 100 cities. compiled its findings using data from nonprofit group Child Care Aware of America and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

    Exorbitant child care costs are contributing to what amounts to a crisis of affordability for many Americans, who also face rising food, housing, energy and health care costs. A survey of roughly 3,000 people released this week by Brigham Young University and Deseret News found that 7 in 10 respondents said that raising children is unaffordable, a sentiment that has surged over the last decade.

    One parent facing a child care crunch is New York City resident Gina Monroe, who started sending her son to day care in September.

    “Having to have a household with both parents working and a grandmother that was getting too old to take care of a two-year-old, you don’t have a choice,” she told CBS News.

    The 42-year-old said she pays $450 a week to send her son to a day care center on nearby Long Island. That’s less than her monthly mortgage payment of $3,200, but still represents one of her family’s biggest expenses, she said.

    The financial strain of everyday life in the U.S., especially following the fierce inflation that erupted during the pandemic, has emerged as a political flashpoint this year. 

    For example, the Trump administration has in recent weeks floated several ideas aimed at easing costs for Americans, including proposals for a $2,000 tariff rebate check and a 50-year mortgage. The administration also last week announced tariff exemptions on some popular grocery store staples, including bananas, beef and coffee, as Americans continue to battle elevated food costs. 

    Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also made issues around affordability the centerpiece of his campaign, urging city officials to establish free child care for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.

    Why are child care costs soaring?

    Child care expenses have been rising steadily for years, and show little sign of relenting. From 2020 to 2024, costs rose nearly 30%, data from the nonprofit group Child Care Aware shows. 

    The main driver for that surge, according to experts: a shortage of early education workers and available places at daycare centers, relative to the enormous demand for such services from families around the U.S.

    To that end, Schulz pointed to what she described as “child care deserts” in some regions, where parents face a dearth of acceptable options. These are most common in low-income rural areas, which have difficulty recruiting and retaining a qualified workforce, a 2023 government report found. 

    Where high-quality child care is in short supply, the owners can charge a premium given they face little competition, Schulz noted. 

    Many households also don’t have the benefit of having nearby family members who can help with child care responsibilities, Keri Rodrigues, co-founder and president of the National Parents Union, an advocacy group for American families, told CBS News.

    “What we actually need are policies that recognize the modern realities of working families and what the true cost of raising children in America actually is right now,” she said.

    Edited by

    Alain Sherter

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  • Facing child care crisis, rural providers band together to stay open

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    Nearly 4 million children in the United States can’t get into a licensed child care center, costing states about $1 billion per year in lost economic activity from parents missing work or stepping away from jobs to support their families. Jonathan Vigliotti reports from rural Nebraska, where one community pooled its resources into one central location.

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  • Can gifted testing spot potential in young children?

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    by Sarah Carr, The Hechinger Report
    November 13, 2025

    In New Orleans, a few hundred dollars could once help a family buy a “gifted” designation for their preschooler.

    As an education reporter for the city’s Times-Picayune newspaper several years ago, I discovered that there was a two-tiered system for determining whether 3-year-olds met that mark, which, in New Orleans, entitled them to gifted-only prekindergarten programs at a few of the city’s most highly sought-after public schools.

    Families could sit on a lengthy waitlist and have their children tested at the district central office for free. Or they could pay the money for the private test. In 2008, the year that I wrote about the issue, only a few of the more than 100 children tested at the central office were deemed gifted; but dozens of privately tested kiddos — nearly all of them tested by the same psychologist for $300 — met the benchmark.

    Since working on that story, I’ve been interested in the use of intelligence testing for high-stakes decisions about educational access and opportunity — and the ways that money, insider knowledge and privilege can manipulate that process.

    But I knew less about what the research shows about a broader question: Should gifted-only programming for the youngest students exist at all and, if so, what form should it take? When New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced in October that he would end long-standing gifted programming for kindergartners (while preserving it for the older grades), I reached out to some leading researchers in search of answers to those questions. Read the story.

    More on gifted education

    Hechinger reporter Jill Barshay, who covers education research, has written several stories about different facets of gifted education, which she captured in a column earlier this month.

    In 2020, The Hechinger Report and NBC News produced a three-part series on the ways that gifted education has maintained segregation in American schools and efforts to diversify gifted classes. 

    More early childhood news

    Federal immigration agents pulled an infant teacher out of her classroom at a Chicago child care, pinning her arms behind her — and traumatizing the families who witnessed the incident, report Molly DeVore and Mack Liederman for Block Club Chicago.

    Growing numbers of child care workers are running for elected office, hoping to work directly on behalf of change and more support for a sector that desperately needs it, writes Rebecca Gale for The 74. 

    Colorado voters approved two sales tax levies to support child care providers and families with young children, reports Ann Schimke with Chalkbeat Colorado.

    Research quick take

    Contrary to perception, there’s little evidence that an increased academic focus in the early elementary years disadvantages boys, write researchers in a new working paper published by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute. The researchers, Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal, examined growth in reading and math test scores for a sample of 12 million students at 22,000 schools between 2016 and 2025. They found that boys are surpassing girls in math by the end of elementary school, and that girls maintain an advantage in reading through fifth grade. 

    This story about gifted testing was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://hechingerreport.org/how-young-is-too-young-for-gifted-testing/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://hechingerreport.org”>The Hechinger Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cropped-favicon.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>

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  • Unlicensed day care operator in Maple Grove faces charges. Here’s how to check if your provider is licensed

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    For working parents, where your child is cared for during the day is a big decision — and an expensive one. 

    One family is dealing with what they call a betrayal of their trust after learning their child care program was shut down for being unlicensed. 

    WCCO found that it’s rare, but it does happen in the state. Residential providers have been charged 23 times in the past five years and this latest case going through the courts right now.

    Emma and Micah Schedler have two little ones. 

    “Jax is now 5. Ayla is 3 and a half. They’re awesome,” dad Micah Schedler said.

    The working parents say when they were looking for daycare, they were referred by word of mouth to The Nest in Maple Grove, operated by Lisa Zahn. 

    “My coworker, who had also have had a kid in there, said, ‘Hey, I know you’re looking for care. This person’s great,’” Micah Schedler said.

    They say they felt it was an in-home child care program they could trust. 

    “Coming from a center, for all the benefits that an in-home can provide. You know, smaller setting, typically more affordable, more attention, time, energy to each child,” mom Emma Schedler said.

    The kids went there for about two years until it abruptly closed. They say they were told it was because of health issues. And then what happened began to unravel. 

    “I just remember that sinking feeling like, Oh, we’ve been like, we’ve been got,” said Micah Shedler. “We’ve been had. And that was really hard.”

    They soon learned it shut down because Zahn, the operator, was charged with providing a residential program without a license.

    “It was a sinking, horrible, I think I cried for weeks. And in addition to the grief, you feel a level of shame. You are a parent who is responsible for a child and it’s your decision to put them in this home, right? Like, we put them there,” Emma Schedler said.

    Maple Grove police initiated the investigation into Zahn. 

    The criminal complaint says Zahn said she was “homeschooling and that her and her husband took care of his sister and brother’s kids.” The investigator discovered they were actually caring for a “total of 18 children” ranging from infants to 5 years old. 

    And Zahn said, “She had been doing daycare for 27 years and had never applied for a license with the state.”

    Randy Keys is the inspector general for the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

    “We license child care programs in the state, primarily to ensure health and safety for children that are being cared for,” Keys said.

    The state says parents should ask questions when deciding on daycare, like are you licensed? And, have they ever lost their license or had action taken on it?

    “There’s a risk if you’re putting your child in someone’s home and you don’t know the person. And an agency like mine hasn’t done a check to ensure that this person has the training and qualifications to do the work that they’re doing, that it’s a safe environment, and that, you know, the people working there are going to be safe with the children,” Keys said.

    The Schedlers say they now see things more clearly. Realizing in hindsight, they should have had a contract with a cost agreement and could have looked to see if the program had a license. 

    “Our motivation and our hope in getting this story out there is that other families can just be mindful of that. And do as much research as you can, of course, but I think keeping other families safe from going through what we went through is our hope,” Emma Schedler said.

    WCCO reached out to Zahn’s attorney. He had no comment.

    The Schedlers civilly sued for payments made for daycare services they say they didn’t receive. The case goes to court in late November. 

    The application fee to be a licensed childcare center is $500. Once licensing requirements have been met, the state has 90 days to grant or deny an application. 

    Click here to look up the license for your childcare center, and for other resources. 

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    Jennifer Mayerle

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  • President Trump urges Republicans to reopen government as shutdown marks longest in US history

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    The government shutdown has reached its 36th day, the longest in U.S. history, as President Donald Trump pressures Republicans to end the Senate filibuster in order to reopen the government.”It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster. It’s the only way you can do it,” Trump told senators Wednesday at the White House.The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Ending the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass a bill with a simple majority, but several Republicans warn that when Democrats are in power, they’d be able to do the same thing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after breakfast at the White House, “It’s just not happening.”The president also said the shutdown was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s election results.”Countless public servants are now not being paid and the air traffic control system is under increasing strain. We must get the government back open soon and really immediately,” Trump said.The shutdown is hitting home for many Americans, with lines stretching at food banks across the country as SNAP benefits are delayed and reduced for more than 40 million Americans. After-school programs that depend on federal dollars are closing. The Transportation Secretary said, starting Friday, there will be a 10% reduction in flights at 40 airports across the country.Republicans have pushed to reopen the government with a short-term spending bill. Democrats have rejected those bills, arguing that Republicans are leaving out a key provision: restoring expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans lower their health-insurance costs. Democrats say passing a short-term bill without those subsidies would leave families facing sudden premium spikes.”The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “The American people have spoken last night. End the shutdown, end the healthcare crisis, sit down and talk with us.”Republicans have said they’re willing to negotiate ACA subsidies, but only after the shutdown is over.See more government shutdown coverage from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    The government shutdown has reached its 36th day, the longest in U.S. history, as President Donald Trump pressures Republicans to end the Senate filibuster in order to reopen the government.

    “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster. It’s the only way you can do it,” Trump told senators Wednesday at the White House.

    The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Ending the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass a bill with a simple majority, but several Republicans warn that when Democrats are in power, they’d be able to do the same thing.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after breakfast at the White House, “It’s just not happening.”

    The president also said the shutdown was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s election results.

    “Countless public servants are now not being paid and the air traffic control system is under increasing strain. We must get the government back open soon and really immediately,” Trump said.

    The shutdown is hitting home for many Americans, with lines stretching at food banks across the country as SNAP benefits are delayed and reduced for more than 40 million Americans. After-school programs that depend on federal dollars are closing.

    The Transportation Secretary said, starting Friday, there will be a 10% reduction in flights at 40 airports across the country.

    Republicans have pushed to reopen the government with a short-term spending bill. Democrats have rejected those bills, arguing that Republicans are leaving out a key provision: restoring expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans lower their health-insurance costs. Democrats say passing a short-term bill without those subsidies would leave families facing sudden premium spikes.

    “The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “The American people have spoken last night. End the shutdown, end the healthcare crisis, sit down and talk with us.”

    Republicans have said they’re willing to negotiate ACA subsidies, but only after the shutdown is over.

    See more government shutdown coverage from the Washington News Bureau:

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  • Some Head Start preschools shutter as government shutdown continues

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    The government shutdown is triggering a wave of closures of Head Start centers, leaving working parents scrambling for child care and shutting some of the nation’s neediest children out of preschool.

    Dozens of centers are missing out on federal grant payments that were due to arrive Nov. 1. Some say they’ll close indefinitely, while others are staying afloat with emergency funding from local governments and school districts. The closures mean Head Start students — who come from low-income households, are homeless or are in foster care — are missing out on preschool, where they are fed two meals a day and receive therapy vital to their development.

    “Children love school, and the fact that they can’t go is breaking their hearts,” said Sarah Sloan, who oversees small-town Head Start centers in Scioto County, Ohio. Staff told families they planned to close Monday. “It’s hampering our families’ ability to put food on the table and to know that their children are safe during the day.”

    A half-dozen Head Start programs never received grants that were anticipated in October, but there are now 140 programs that have not received their annual infusion of federal funding. All told, the programs have capacity to assist 65,000 preschoolers and expectant parents.

    Among the preschools closing as of Monday are 24 Migrant and Seasonal Head Start centers spread across five states. Those centers, created to assist the children of migrant farmworkers, typically operate on 10- to 12-hour days to accommodate the long hours parents work on farms.

    Children attending the centers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma recently came home with fliers warning of possible closures, along with other parent notifications. Those centers serving more than 1,100 children will now remain closed until the shutdown ends, said East Coast Migrant Head Start Project CEO Javier Gonzalez. About 900 staff members across the centers also have been furloughed.

    In the absence of other options for child care, some parents’ only option may be to bring their young child to the fields where they work, Gonzalez said.

    Many of the families that qualify for the federal preschool program also depend on food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps. That program also was on track to run dry of money due to the shutdown, although a pair of federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep the program running with emergency reserve funds.

    That means many Head Start families have been worried about food aid, along with the child care they rely on to make ends meet. A day without child care means a day without work for many parents — and a day without pay.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, Jhanee Hunt teaches toddlers at a Head Start site, the Emmanuel Family and Child Development Center, where her 6-month-old son is cared for in another classroom. The center said it can scrape up enough money to stay open for a few weeks, but the money won’t last much beyond November.

    At dropoff, she said, parents often are wearing uniforms for fast food restaurants like Wendy’s and McDonald’s. Some work as certified nurse assistants in nursing homes. None have much extra money. The most urgent concern right now is food, she said.

    “A lot of the parents, they’re, you know, going around trying to find food pantries,” she said. “A parent actually asked me, do I know a food pantry?”

    More than 90% of the center’s families rely on SNAP food assistance, said Deborah Mann, the center’s executive director. One construction company offered to help fill the grocery carts of some families that use the center. But overall, families are distressed, she said.

    “We’ve had parents crying. We’ve had parents just don’t know what to do,” Mann said.

    Launched six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start programs provide a range of services beyond early education, such as medical and dental screenings, school meals and family support to children from low-income households who can’t afford other child care options.

    The initiative is funded almost entirely by the federal government, leaving it with little cushion from funding disruptions.

    Some that have missed out on grant payments have managed to remain open, with philanthropies, school districts and local governments filling in gaps. Others are relying on fast-dwindling reserves and warn they can’t keep their doors open for much longer.

    “If the government doesn’t open back up, we will be providing less services each week,” said Rekah Strong, who heads a social services nonprofit that runs Head Start centers in southern Washington state. She’s already had to close one center and several classrooms and cut back home-based visiting services. “It feels more bleak every day.”

    In Florida, Head Start centers in Tallahassee and surrounding Leon County closed Oct. 27, but then reopened the next day thanks to a grant from Children’s Services Council of Leon County. The local school district and churches have stepped up to provide meals for the children.

    “It takes a village to raise a child, and our village has come together,” said Nina Self, interim CEO of Capital Area Community Action Agency.

    But children in rural Jefferson and Franklin counties, where the agency runs two small Head Start centers, were not as lucky. They’ve been closed since late October.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • In U.S. First, New Mexico Launches Free Child Care for All

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    New Mexico became on Saturday the first U.S. state to offer free child care to all residents in a bid to boost its economy and lift education and child welfare levels ranked the worst in the country.

    Under the program, families, regardless of income, can receive state vouchers to cover public and private child care fees. It culminates efforts New Mexico has made to expand access to free child care since the governor and state legislature created the Early Childhood Education and Care Department in 2019.

    The launch comes as other Democratic-run states, cities and counties eye a step popular among working families. Connecticut recently passed a bill making child care free for those families earning under $100,000 per year and no more than 7 percent of income for those earning more. New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed no-cost universal child care.

    Big savings for families

    Taos special education teacher Allyson O’Brien expects to save around $12,000 a year in child care bills for her son Otis, who is nearly 2-1/2. She and her husband Shawn O’Kelly, a truck driver, earn a fraction above New Mexico’s previous income cap for free child care, which was about $129,000 per year for their family of four.

    “We’ll be able to go on vacation, we won’t have to decide what bills we’re going to pay, like, are we going to do propane or the mortgage?” O’Brien said.

    To achieve a fully universal system, New Mexico must create nearly 14,000 more child care slots and recruit 5,000 educators, according to its Democratic-run government. The state is establishing a $12.7 million low-interest loan fund to construct and expand child care facilities. It is also increasing reimbursement rates to providers that pay entry-level staff a minimum of $18 per hour, above the state’s $12 hourly minimum wage, and offer full-time care.

    Alison McPartlon, director of the University of New Mexico-Taos Kids’ Campus child care center, said her waiting list is so long some children do not get in before they start kindergarten. She said higher reimbursement rates will help her retain and recruit educators.

    “There will be more centers coming up,” said McPartlon, describing the shift to universal child care as “incredible.”

    Addressing poverty

    New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters child care was “the backbone of creating a system of support for families that allows them to work, to go to college, to do all the things they need to do to continue to lift New Mexico out of poverty.”

    Nearly 18 percent of New Mexicans live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census, making it one of the poorest states. Slightly larger in area than the United Kingdom, with only 2.1 million people,

    The state will fund universal child care, estimated to cost $600 million annually, largely with interest from its Early Childhood Education and Care Fund. The fund has grown to around $10 billion primarily from oil and gas taxes since it was set up in 2020.

    The sector generates about half of total state revenue.

    It will also draw from another large trust fund and seek appropriations from the Democratic-controlled state legislature.

    Research shows quality child care lifts education outcomes, especially among low-income families, according to Philip Fisher, a professor of early childhood learning at Stanford University.

    Reading levels of New Mexican students fall far below the national average when children are first tested around age 8 or 9, according to studies by Neal Halfon, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    The Annie E. Casey Foundation has, for years, ranked New Mexico last among states in both education and child well-being.

    New Mexico joins countries such as Norway and Belgium that offer free universal child care for children under 3, and Bulgaria, where early childhood education is free for all children until elementary school. New Mexico is going further by offering no-cost child care for children up to age 13.

    Critics such as New Mexico State Representative Rebecca Dow, a Republican, say families should be given a choice between a monthly $1,200 state tax credit for a parent to stay home with a child – the equivalent cost of state-funded child care – or free child care. She said research showed the best place for a young child was at home in a healthy, safe household. Dow, the founder of a daycare center, supports targeted state-funded care where that is not the case.

    “Why not try a conservative approach of an equal tax credit for mom to be home?” said Dow, who sees a shortage of daycare slots hampering the universal program. “There is no capacity. People are going to be disappointed.”

    Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Donna Bryson and Rod Nickel

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  • Child care crisis deepens as funding slashed for poor families

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    by Jackie Mader, The Hechinger Report
    November 1, 2025

    The first hint of trouble for McKinley Hess came in August. 

    Hess, who runs an infant and toddler care program in Conway, Arkansas, heard that the teen moms she serves were having trouble getting their expected child care assistance payments. Funded by a mix of federal and state dollars, those subsidies are the only way many low-income parents nationwide can afford child care, by reimbursing providers for care and lowering the amount parents have to pay themselves.

    In Arkansas, teen parents have long been given priority to receive this aid. But now, Hess heard, they and many other families in need were sitting on a growing wait-list.

    Hess had just enrolled eight teen moms at her central Arkansas site, Conway Cradle Care, and was counting on state subsidies to pay for their children’s care. As the moms were stuck waiting for financial assistance, Hess had two options: kick them out, or care for their infants for free so their mothers wouldn’t have to drop out of school. She chose the latter. 

    Just a month later, another hit: Arkansas government officials announced they were going to cut the rates they pay providers on behalf of low-income families. Beginning Nov. 1, Hess will get $36 a day for each infant in her care and $35 a day for toddlers, down from $56 and $51 a day respectively. She’s already lost out on more than $20,000 by providing free care for 8 infants for the past two months.

    “Financially, it really is going to hurt our day care,” Hess said. But the stakes are also high for the parents who need child care assistance, she said: “For them to be able to continue school, these vouchers are essential.” 

    As states face having to cut spending while bracing for fewer federal dollars under the budget bill President Trump signed in July, some, including Arkansas, view early learning programs as a place to slash funding. They’re making these cuts even as experts and providers predict they will be disastrous for children, families and the economy if parents don’t have child care and can’t work. 

    The same families face other upheaval: The ongoing government shutdown means states may not receive their Nov. 1 shares of federal money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, meaning families may not get that aid. Across the country, more than 100 Head Start centers, part of a federally funded preschool program that provides free child care, may have to close, at least temporarily, if the shutdown drags on as expected and they do not get expected federal cash by the start of next month. 

    Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

    Elsewhere, Colorado, Maryland and New Jersey recently stopped accepting new families into their child care assistance programs. In June, Oregon’s Democratic-led legislature cut $20 million from the state’s preschool program for low-income families. In September, Indiana joined Arkansas in announcing reductions in reimbursement rates for providers who care for low-income children. This summer, the governor of Alaska vetoed part of the state’s budget that would have given more money to child care and early intervention services for young children with developmental disabilities. Washington state legislators cut $60 million last month from a program that provides early learning and family support to preschoolers. Additional cuts or delays in payments have cropped up in Ohio, Nevada and the District of Columbia.

    “Almost every state is facing a very, very, very significant pullback of federal dollars,” said Daniel Hains, chief policy officer at the D.C.-based National Association for the Education of Young Children. “It does not help families when you cut provider reimbursement rates, when you cut funds going to providers, because it makes it less likely that those families are going to access the high-quality child care that they need.”

    This trend could further devastate America’s fragile child care industry, which has been especially slow to recover since the pandemic due to a lack of funding. Child care programs are expensive to run and, with limited public support, providers rely heavily on tuition from parents to pay their bills.

    In many parts of the country, parents already pay the equivalent of college tuition or a second mortgage on child care and have little ability to pay more. Yet child care staff generally make abysmally low wages and have high turnover rates. There’s often little wiggle room in program budgets.

    One of the only sources of federal funding for child care centers comes from the federally funded Child Care and Development Fund. Each year, Congress sets the level of block grants to states, which add matching funds. Arkansas officials said recent cuts to their subsidy program are in response to an unexpected $8 million decrease in federal CCDF funding this year after post-pandemic changes to the way state payouts are calculated.

    In September, Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva told lawmakers that without cutting rates to providers, the state would be unlikely to be able to sustain the program. “The last thing I want to do is set up a reimbursement rate that at Christmas we have to call everybody and say we’re done, we spent all our money,” he said during a hearing.

    In addition to cutting payments to providers, the state increased family co-payments, the amount parents must pay toward child care in addition to what their subsidy covers. It’s far from a perfect solution, Oliva told lawmakers. “But we have to do something.”

    Related: How early ed is affected by federal cuts

    During the pandemic, child care programs and states received a fresh infusion of public funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, helping to stabilize those businesses. Many states used the influx to bolster their subsidy programs, allowing more children to use them and increasing what providers were paid.

    As that aid expired over the last two years, some states found money to sustain that expansion, but others did not. Indiana was left with a $225 million gap between the cost of its child care subsidy program and the state money dedicated to filling it. In October, officials cut reimbursement rates by 10 to 35 percent, saying in a statement that “there is only one pot of money — we could either protect providers or kids, and we chose kids.”

    Experts and child care directors say, however, that in the child care business it’s impossible to decouple kids from providers. The decision to cut reimbursement rates will ultimately hurt both, they insist, especially as providers find it hard to keep their doors open. Already, some programs have shuttered or announced plans to close by the end of the year. At others, families have left in search of more affordable care.

    Cori Kerns, a senior staff consultant at Little Duckling Early Learning Schools in Indianapolis, said that now that schools are receiving less money from the state, parents must make up the difference. Since the changes were announced in September, Little Duckling has lost 26 children — nearly 18 percent of its enrollment — because parents cannot afford that increase. 

    “That could be a tank of gas to them, that could be some groceries, that could be school supplies or medical needs. Some of them have had to literally stop and stay home with their child in order to survive and also not pay for child care,” Kerns said. “Those kids are suffering” as they stay home with stressed parents who are worrying about lost income, she added.  

    As families pulled their children, Kerns merged two buildings of her program into one, creating larger class sizes and new teacher assignments. That’s led to challenging behavioral problems for children who must adjust to new environments. Kerns anticipates losing teachers now that the work environment has become more stressful.

    Experts warn this trend in some states of scaling back early childhood investments is widening an existing nationwide disparity in the availability of affordable, high-quality child care. While states like Arkansas and Indiana pull back, a handful of others are moving the opposite direction, putting more money toward early learning. In New Mexico, for example, the nation’s first free universal child care program will launch on Nov. 1, paid for by oil and gas revenue that is routed to the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Fund. In 2023, Vermont passed a payroll tax to increase child care funding in the state, while Connecticut established an endowment this year to route surplus state funds into early learning programs. 

    States have already been diverging in their approach to the child care industry since the pandemic. Rather than invest in more qualified workers, some states have opted to deregulate child care and bring teenagers in to care for young children. At the same time, places like the District of Columbia have increased qualifications for child care providers.

    Related: Rural Americans rely on Head Start. Federal turmoil has them worried

    “This is what happens when you don’t have public federal dollars in the system,” said NAEYC’s Hains. In states that are clawing back child care funds, “it’s going to result in lower quality care for children, or it’s going to result in families pulling back from the workforce and facing greater economic insecurity,” Hains said. “We’re going to see a real harmful impact on children and families as these investments are pulled back.”

    In Mooresville, Indiana, Jen Palmer calculated that her program, The Growing Garden Learning Center, will lose about $260,000 from its annual budget because of cuts in state contributions to care for children from low-income families. 

    “If nothing changes as of today, I can sustain for a year,” Palmer said. “Past that, I’m going to start dipping into my retirement savings.” She’s hesitant to discuss closing the program, one of highest-quality centers in the area. “I believe in this place. What we do is amazing. We just have to make it through this.”

    The lower subsidy rate is just the latest of a series of changes that Palmer has endured. Last December, Indiana stopped accepting new applicants into the care aid program and instead launched a waiting list. Palmer stopped getting calls from parents who wanted to enroll their children, as they couldn’t pay for care on their own. 

    Earlier this year, Indiana also announced cuts to reimbursement rates for its pre-K program, which is run in schools and child care programs throughout the state. Palmer now receives about $148 a week for each pre-K student she serves, down from more than $300 a week last year. Over the past three months, she’s had to lay off seven teachers and has taken over teaching in a pre-K classroom in the mornings. “We’re going to do our darndest that the kids don’t feel the impact,” she said. 

    She hasn’t been able to completely shield them. One toddler in her program recently shocked and delighted his teachers when he said his first word in English: a bold “no.” Concerned that the child had language delays, they were thrilled that he was starting to make progress. 

    Then the child’s family pulled him out of the program. His mother, who works as a delivery driver, had previously qualified for free child care paid for by state. With the state now paying less, her tuition jumped to $167 a month. 

    Instead of interacting with other children and teachers, playing and learning new skills, the toddler is now “sitting in mom’s car in a car seat driving around all over the county while she delivers for Uber,” said Palmer. “That just set that little guy years back. When he enters school, he’s no longer going to be on par with his classmates. That’s not fair. That can’t be the answer.”

    Contact staff writer Jackie Mader at 212-678-3562 or mader@hechingerreport.org 

    This story about child care was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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  • North Texas child care centers failed to report sexual abuse, mom’s lawsuit says

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    A stock photo of a daycare center.

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    This story contains references to sexual abuse of young children. If you suspect that a child has been abused or neglected, contact the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services by phone at 1-800-252-5400 or online through the Texas Abuse Hotline website.

    Two child care centers in North Texas are accused of allowing an employee to continue to work for them despite reports of inappropriate behavior and sexual abuse of children at those centers, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Tarrant County district court.

    The lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Tiffany Young, a mother of a 2-year-old daughter who attended Lionheart Children’s Academy in Grapevine, alleges that her daughter was sexually abused at the child care center by teacher Thaddaeus Davidson after he was hired in December 2020. Davidson previously worked at Lewisville New Hope Learning Center, which provided positive references to Lionheart on his behalf after allegedly knowing about his inappropriate interactions with children that occurred there as well, according to the suit.

    The suit states that Lionheart and Lewisville New Hope Learning Center disregarded state laws that require child care employees to report suspected instances of child abuse within 48 hours of the abuse happening or being suspected of happening. As a result, Young’s daughter was subject to sexual abuse for two years, according to the suit.

    Davidson, who was 32 years old at the time of joining Lionheart, would later be at the center of an investigation that uncovered “the abuse of several other children at other daycares in the North Texas area, including (Young’s daughter),” the suit states. After his arrest in October 2022, Davidson pleaded guilty to multiple counts of indecency with a child with sexual contact. He was sentenced in a plea agreement in December 2023 to 10 years of probation with deferred adjudication and required to register as a sex offender, court records show.

    He is named in the suit as a defendant alongside two child care centers that formerly employed him. Lionheart is located at 121 Community Church. The now-closed Lewisville New Hope Learning Center had been located inside First Lewisville United Methodist Church.

    Young, the plaintiff and parent, is demanding more than $1 million in damages and is requesting a jury trial.

    “I trusted Lionheart to care for my baby, and instead they ignored every warning sign and allowed her to be harmed,” Young said in a statement. “Lionheart’s failures have changed my life and my daughter’s life forever.”

    Lionheart staff said in a statement on Friday that they deeply care about the physical, emotional, educational and spiritual growth of the children the center serves, and its top priority “is and continues to be children’s safety.”

    “While we are unable to comment specifically on pending litigation or individuals involved, we’ve been made aware of a recent lawsuit brought forth regarding a 2022 investigation at one of our Grapevine, Texas locations and dispute those allegations. We are grateful for the laws in place that protect all children, and we will continue to comply fully with all state laws and licensing requirements,” the child care center said.

    Officials with Lewisville New Hope Learning Center could not be reached for comment .

    Davidson declined to comment in a text message to the Star-Telegram on Friday and referred questions to his attorney. It’s unclear who will be representing him in the suit.

    The allegations against Davidson include inappropriate touching, such as kissing little girls on the lips and having them sit on his lap or with their legs wrapped around him while working at Lionheart, the lawsuits states. He also was accused of taking photos of girls in the bathroom at the center. A Lionheart teacher told the center’s director in a July 2022 email that he “touches little girls in class inappropriately, tickling them underneath their dresses” and that he was seen “rubbing up their thighs” during a movie, the suit states.

    In a forensic interview and hospital examination, Young’s daughter revealed that Davidson “touched my privates” and pointed to her genitalia when asked to identify where, according to the suit.

    “Multiple” colleagues of Davidson from both child care centers came forward to leadership with complaints about his “inappropriate and sexually oriented” behavior, but none of these reports were shared with the state, according to the suit.

    “This lawsuit is about accountability and prevention,” said The Button Law Firm daycare injury lawyer Russell Button, who represents Young. “Texas daycare laws exist for a reason: to stop abuse before it happens. When daycare centers like Lionheart and New Hope ignore reports of inappropriate behavior, they endanger every child in their care. The psychological trauma of sexual abuse can stay with victims for a lifetime, and that’s why mandatory reporting of suspected abuse is the law.”

    This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 6:23 PM.

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lina Ruiz

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.

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  • ‘The clock is ticking’: Shutdown imperils food, child care for many – The Hechinger Report

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    For families in more than a hundred Head Start programs across the country, November could mark the beginning of some hard decisions.

    On Saturday, 134 Head Start centers serving 58,400 children would normally receive their annual federal funding, but the ongoing government shutdown has put that money in jeopardy. The federally funded Head Start provides free preschool and child care for low-income families, and is particularly important to rural communities with few other child care options. 

    At the same time, the federal government has said that because of the shutdown, it cannot distribute Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that families also expect on the first of the month. Plus, a program that provides extra money for families to buy milk, baby formula, and fruit and vegetables is also running out of $300 million in emergency funding provided to it earlier this month.

    Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

    All this means low-income families are facing upheaval on multiple fronts, said Christy Gleason, the vice president of policy, advocacy and campaigns for the nonprofit group Save the Children. Families in Head Start often receive other federal benefits, so they could simultaneously be facing a disruption in child care — and the meals provided there — and public food assistance.

    “You’re going to end up with parents and caregivers who are skipping meals themselves, because that’s the way they put food on the table for their kids,” Gleason said. Save the Children manages Head Start programs in rural Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee, but its programs are not among those affected by the Nov. 1 annual funding deadline. Head Start has 1,600 programs that receive their yearly funding throughout the calendar year.

    There are still a few days left to avert the crisis, Gleason said. More than two dozen states are suing the government to force it to use a pot of money that had been set aside for paying SNAP benefits in an emergency. President Donald Trump also said this week that the food aid situation would be fixed, but didn’t offer details. Federal lawmakers have also introduced different proposals to keep food assistance money flowing. A handful of states said they will continue to pay for the supplemental milk and formula program, known as WIC. Head Start programs may be able to tap local money, but that isn’t expected to last long. 

    “The clock is ticking,” Gleason said. “Every hour that goes by is an hour where the stress for these families grows, but it’s not too late for government action to change course and make sure children are not the ones to suffer the consequences of political decisions.”

    New data quantifies child care gaps

    Nearly 15 million ages 5 and under in the United States have “all available parents” — both adults in a two-parent household, or one if the child has one adult caregiver — in the workforce. The country has about 11 million licensed or registered child care slots.

    That leaves about 4 million children whose families may need child care — a hard-to-grasp number that obscures the fact that some parts of the country may have greater needs than other regions because child care providers are concentrated in some areas and sparse in others.

    The Buffett Early Childhood Institute, based at the University of Nebraska, is trying to address that problem. It has created a map that it says will give a more accurate view of where child care is needed the most, down to the congressional district. 

    The map captures the number of children with working parents and the number of available spots in licensed child care. What it cannot capture is demand — not every family needs child care, even families with parents in the workforce — but the map does allow policymakers a starting place for a more nuanced evaluation of their community’s needs.

    “We know the limitations of the data, but we also know in order to address the gap, this needs to be broken down into bite-sized pieces,” said Linda Smith, director of policy at the Buffett Institute.

    This story about the government shutdown was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • OPINION: Student-parents belong on college campuses. So do their children

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    Too many student-parents never make it to graduation, in no small part because their campuses don’t adequately help them fit college into their lives — or even just fit in.

    Yet over 3 million student-parents across the nation, myself included, are pursuing higher education, seeking the intergenerational benefits that come with earning a degree. To reap them, we must overcome many obstacles, as colleges aren’t designed for students like us.

    For me, the last hurdle I had to clear was graduation itself. After years of sacrifice — not just my own, but my whole family’s — walking the stage with my four children at my graduation from the University of California, Santa Cruz was deeply important.

    The university, however, didn’t understand that or account for us. When I asked to accept my diploma with my kids, I was met with resistance, a particularly tough reminder of the work institutions have left to do to meet the needs and priorities of student-parents.

    Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

    Earning my college degree in my late 30s was undoubtedly a major achievement, but so was going back for my bachelor’s in the first place — I didn’t even finish high school the first time around.

    After I became a mom at 20, I earned my GED, hoping it would help me support my family. Continuing my education only got harder. I started and stopped community college more times than I can count, juggling bills, jobs, custody battles and parenting.

    Finally, I transferred to UCSC, proud that I was taking this step two decades in the making and changing the trajectory of my and my family’s lives.

    However, I didn’t fully realize what my education would cost my children. Used to our tight-knit Tongan community, they felt like cultural outsiders when we moved to Santa Cruz, no longer surrounded by family, our native language or familiar foods and music.

    My children sacrificed their home and sense of belonging so that I could pursue this dream. As graduation approached, I knew I wanted to walk the stage with them. They had earned it just as much as I had.

    Yet the administration denied my request, citing the added logistical difficulties. They suggested I bring my kids to a separate, informal celebration for those of us living in family student housing instead. The offer sounded like “be invisible or settle for less.”

    I immediately started mobilizing UCSC’s Student Parent Organization, where I was president. Working with the student government, I drafted a resolution permitting student-parents to walk with their children. I reached out to alumni, administrators, fellow parents and friends for support.

    Thanks to our collective voice, the dean of students changed his mind, offered an apology and committed to changing the policy going forward for all graduating student-parents. Though my kids and I were placed at the end of the ceremony, we crossed the stage together as a family.

    That seed of inclusion will grow in them, just like it will for all the children of student-parents who walk that path in the future.

    The next year, my mentee and friend walked with her son at the UCSC commencement, this time without pushback. The university invited them to rehearsal, and on graduation day, they had VIP seats. She was one of the first to walk, not the last.

    That is the power of advocacy. It turns exclusion into inclusion. It rewrites the rules not just for one person, but for those who come after. I am proud to continue my advocacy work as a graduate student at the University of San Francisco and a member of The California Alliance for Student Parent Success.

    I have since seen institutions across California make good progress on their efforts to support student-parents, but colleges and universities nationwide must still do more. At the University at Buffalo, university police chased a graduating student across the stage when he attempted to bring his infant son with him.

    Related: A federal program helped student-parents thrive. Now it’s on life support

    These stories and the momentum building in the wake of September’s National Student Parent Month should serve as a call to higher education leaders across the country to cultivate campus climates that build trust and belonging among student-parents.

    This work should start before we even step foot on campus and continue until we graduate.

    Institutions that truly wish to serve families will ensure that the value we bring to higher education is visible. They will account for student-parents when planning campus events and weave together support networks of faculty, staff and peers who can respond to our needs.

    When we ask institutions for policies and practices to better accommodate our families, they will listen and act. They will hold themselves accountable to all of their students, parents included.

    Walking the stage with my kids was a step in the right direction, albeit an uphill climb. Let’s keep going and do better by student-parents and their families.

    Krystle Pale is a UC Santa Cruz graduate, a mother of five and a recent Advisory Committee member of The California Alliance for Student Parent Success.

    Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about student-parents was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • How Your Company Can Retain Talent as Child Care Costs Drive Women Out of the Workforce

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    Today, DEI is a loaded term in a fraught politcal and cultural climate, but current disfavor doesn’t change the fact is that inequalities of many types persist in the workplace. Cue a new ABC report that highlights how women are actively leaving the U.S. workforce in increasing numbers because the cost of child care is so high. “It’s the 21st century,” you may be thinking, “shouldn’t this be impacting men as caregivers on an equal footing?” Explain that to the nearly half-million women who’ve dropped out of the labor market since January, the report says.

    The surge in women workers deciding that the working life isn’t for them has been “driven largely by women with young children,” Minnesota’s ABC affiliate 5 Eyewitness News reports. Some 450,000 women have followed this path since the start of 2025, and the news outlet points to one clear reason: “the high cost of daycare has been to blame.”

    The report quotes financial planner Bjorn Amundson of Saint Paul-based financial planning firm Quarry Hill Advisors, who suggests that before families make this big decision they should split expenses across different accounts that reflect today’s polarizing financial realities. Mortgages, for example, won’t change, but, as Amundson notes, “discretionary expenses” will — do you really need that Netflix subscription as well as the HBO and Apple TV ones? So it may make sense to practice having one parent at home for a while, “and see what it feels like before you pull the trigger. It’s one of the toughest decisions you make as a parent.”

    But there’s a bigger trend at play here, with KSTP pointing out that the loss of so many female workers could not only “erase the historic gains women have made since the pandemic, but also reshape the labor force for years to come.” A BBC report from August that tackled this trend noted that “after years of leaning in and pursuing career growth, an emerging slice of college-educated women are either going part time or quitting their jobs entirely.” At the time, the BBC said data showed that between “January and July 2025, 212,000 women left the workforce at the same time that 44,000 men entered it.”

    Meanwhile, other reports suggest one driving factor for this trend is the emergence of the “sandwich generation.” As Business Insider recently put it, the “growing share of American workers” are facing a difficult reality of “caring for both aging parents and children at the same time.” 

    Can we blame the “tradwife” trend for some of this — a conservative-leaning notion that women’s place really is in the home? The trend, science news site Phys.org contends, is all about a “modern-day housewife who embraces traditional gender roles, typically focusing on homemaking, childcare and supporting her husband, often while sharing her idealized lifestyle on social media.” 

    But a recent study highlighted in this report suggests that there are deeper, non-political reasons involved that play into the explanation of why so many women are leaving the U.S. workforce. In a survey of 1,000 younger women age 18–34, researchers found that “what attracts them to tradwife content is less the male-breadwinner female-caregiver model and more the aesthetic of simplicity, leisure and escape from the pressures of increasingly demanding yet insecure work.”

    Meanwhile, a new op-ed at the Boston Globe shines a light on a totally different facet of this issue: it may be “provocative” to say it, but “the smartest workplaces usually have more women,” the article contends. 

    Why should you care about all this?

    Because, amid complex, changing geopolitical circumstances, the reality is that if your company’s benefits and compensation policies result in excluding more women than you may have thought, you’re simply missing out on a long list of potentially fabulous job candidates.

    Citigroup’s CEO Jane Fraser landed her company in the spotlight this year for precisely this reason: by embracing hybrid-friendly work policies that are appealing to working mothers, Fraser considered she’s putting her company at a competitive advantage for hiring talented workers who otherwise may stay at home, or seek jobs at rival firms.

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  • Preemies often miss out on the help they need

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    Every year, tens of thousands of infants are born prematurely, at a low birthweight, or with other conditions that would make them automatically eligible for therapeutic services that could help them thrive. 

    When everything goes smoothly, early intervention provides those services, required by federal law for children ages birth to 3. Funding sources for the program can vary, but it’s often paid for by a mix of federal, state, local, and private insurance dollars.

    But far too few of the youngest children actually receive that help. (It’s an issue I wrote about earlier this year.) One particular gap is in services provided to infants from birth to 1. Only about 1.3 percent of babies that age receive early intervention services, compared to 7.5 percent of 2- to 3-year-olds, according to a new report from the think tank New America.

    Kayla Khan, a long-time speech therapist, has experienced that gap herself. 

    When her infant daughter was released after a month and a half in neonatal intensive care, she asked the discharge team about early intervention services. Because of her background, she knew about the therapies. 

    At the time, the family lived in the Washington D.C. area, and no one at the hospital was helpful. “They said, ‘You don’t want that,’ or, ‘It’s not going to help you,’” Khan recalled.

    After moving to Seattle a few months later, Khan finally connected with early intervention services that provided physical and feeding therapy to her daughter. She now helps lead a decade-old effort in Seattle to provide care and support specifically to families of “tiny babies” who are transitioning from the hospital to home.

    The program relies on building trust and communication with hospital staff to ensure eligible babies get referred to early intervention and speeding up the evaluation timeline so babies get seen within three days of a referral — “really, really, really fast” for a system where the requirement for referral is 45 days, Khan said. Her program also connects families with therapists who are skilled and trained in the specific needs of newborns. 

    “We’re making this process that was designed for all children, birth to 3, work for the tiniest babies,” Khan said.

    This kind of targeted attention for the youngest is desperately needed, according to the New America report and another that focused on Illinois, from early nonprofit advocacy group Start Early. (I recently completed a reporting fellowship with New America which supported some of my writing on early intervention, among other topics.)  

    Among the two reports’ recommendations:

    Make the list of conditions that automatically qualify a baby for early intervention easy to understand and find. States have identified scores of different qualifying conditions that make a child more likely to develop a delay, including extreme prematurity, low birthweight, a parent with a substance use disorder, and child welfare involvement. But, as the New America report points out, finding a user-friendly list of the conditions can be a challenge. “The eligibility criteria and the way things work varies so much from one state to the next,” said report co-author Carrie Gillispie, the Early Development & Disability project director at New America.   

    The Start Early report noted that in a related study, two families were judged ineligible for early intervention despite their children having medical conditions that should have made them automatically eligible.

    Consider co-locating early intervention staff in the NICU to make the transition as smooth as possible. Coordinators would be physically present in NICUs to build relationships, participate in medical rounds, and lead the process to enroll children in early intervention programs, the Start Early authors wrote. Both reports stress the importance of providing the family with a personal connection to early intervention before a baby gets discharged from the hospital.

    Improve coordination and communication with the early intervention system, hospitals and pediatricians. Pediatricians are not always notified when doctors in the hospital refer a child to early intervention services. And well-child visits are often so short that physicians miss the full developmental picture. Too often, referrals come after a child is already starting to struggle, said Sarah Gilliland, a senior policy analyst in the New Practice Lab at New America, who co-wrote the report.

    Bridge cultural and language barriers with families by hiring more multilingual hospital and early intervention staff. Cultural divides are pervasive throughout the early intervention system, where the overwhelming majority of the therapists and other providers in many communities are white, English-speaking women. But even simple forms often go untranslated: One survey found that nearly three-quarters of state early intervention referral forms are only available in English, the New America report noted. The  report also stressed that families should be reassured that early intervention services are meant to be support, not surveillance. “Hesitant families might benefit from a connection with families within their own communities who can explain what to expect from early intervention,” the authors wrote.

    Strengthen electronic referral systems and centralize enrollment in early intervention programs. When I reported on the too-often broken path from the NICU to early intervention in Chicago, I heard stories of a system that relied heavily on faxing paper forms. NICU physicians often had no idea what happened with referrals they made. Indeed, surveys have found that only a fraction of early intervention coordinators have access to technology that links children’s electronic health records to the referral system.

    Some states and communities are introducing technological advances which could be implemented more widely, the New America report noted. For instance, one state is trying to address the problem using “e-referrals,” which share an infant’s medical records directly with the early intervention system. 

    We want to hear from you

    We want to help you make sense of the first year of the Trump administration and the effects on education. What have you experienced? What do you want to know more about? Tell us, and you will help inspire reporting by our journalists. Email editor@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about preemies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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