Early Childhood Education News & Reports
Survey: NC Child Care Providers Concerned About Quality and Affordability With Assistance Set to End
North Carolina’s child care providers say Stabilization Grants enabled them to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic and are concerned about costs and quality in the absence of support.
Nearly 4,400 programs have already received $276.8 million in Compensation Grants (funded by the American Rescue
Plan Act). With this funding set to expire at the end of 2023, a new survey highlights how programs in the state used those compensation resources and what they are concerned about once funding ends.Click here to read more.
Your Child's Academic Success May Start With Their Screen Time as Infants, Study Says
Letting infants watch tablets and TV may be impairing their academic achievement and emotional well-being later on, according to a new study.
Researchers found that increased use of screen time during infancy was associated with poorer executive functioning once the child was 9 years old, according to the study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Click here to read the full story from CNN.
Child Care in America Continues to be 'One of the Biggest Challenges' for Working Women
The U.S. is facing an ongoing “crisis of care” — a child care crisis — exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic fallout.
Women were among those hardest hit by job losses as a result of COVID, with over 5.4 million net jobs lost between February 2020 and January 2022. At the same time, the cost of child care has been steadily rising in part due to inflation.
Governor Proclaims Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has issued a proclamation officially recognizing May 6, 2022, as Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day!
Child Care Workers are Vanishing — And It's Hurting the Entire Economy
Since losing one-third of its workforce at the outset of the pandemic, the child care industry has seen a jobs recovery that's been slow and incomplete. And now it's starting to backslide.
After shedding 4,500 jobs from September through November, preliminary estimates from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the child day care services industry lost another 3,700 jobs in December.
Click here to read the full story from CNN Business.
Survey: NC Child Care Centers Struggling to Hire and Retain Staff
North Carolina child care providers are finding it difficult to hire and retain qualified staff as the state continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey. As a result, nearly one-third (32%) of child care providers have abruptly closed classrooms with little notice to parents. Despite providers offering increased salaries and benefits to staff, more than 80 percent of child care centers surveyed report that it is more difficult to hire staff now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Child Care, a Critical Service for Families, Remains Inaccessible for Many
For many families, child care is a necessity. In 2019, there were 73 million children in the U.S., which is about 22% of the U.S. population. But child care can be prohibitively expensive. The average cost is about $10,000 a year per child, according to the Treasury Department. This often forces parents to make a decision: pay for child care or quit their job.
Click here to listen to a Charlotte Talks conversation with CCRI President & CEO Janet Singerman and other experts about the child care crisis.
With child care unaffordable and hard to find, many parents struggle to stay employed
Parents — low-wage earners in particular — are struggling to secure affordable child care as the industry grapples with financials that don't add up for child care operators, families, and workers.
But cost isn't the only factor making care hard to find. Many child care facilities have had to slash their capacity because of understaffing and because of the need to maintain social distancing as young children remain unvaccinated, leaving fewer spots open for families looking for child care.
Click here to read the full story from CBS News.
