Berkeley, CA—The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at University of California, Berkeley is honored to announce it is part of a team selected to lead the new National Early Care and Education Workforce Center, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“CSCCE is thrilled that the federal government is investing in improving conditions for the early care and education workforce,” said Lea Austin, CSCCE Executive Director. “Our involvement with the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center will complement our ongoing research and policy efforts towards securing racial, gender, and economic justice for the workforce,” said Austin.
“We know it is hard for families to find quality early childhood programs. One of the reasons is that programs are having trouble recruiting and retaining early educators,” said Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Assistant Secretary January Contreras. “We cannot continue to expect early educators to remain in these critical roles only to earn poverty wages. The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center will help states and localities support early care and education professionals—and, in doing so, support working families.”
The ECE Workforce Center is operated by six core partners: BUILD Initiative, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley, Child Trends, University of Delaware, University of Massachusetts-Boston, ZERO TO THREE, and additional consultants in the team’s Learning through Action Consortium.
Since 1999, CSCCE has been the nation’s primary source of research and policy analysis regarding the early care and education (ECE) workforce. Activities of the National ECE Workforce Center will be informed by CSCCE’s five strategic policy areas, articulated in its Early Childhood Workforce Index: Qualifications and Educational Supports, Compensation, Work Environments, Workforce Data, and Financial Resources.
“We’re grateful to be part of this partnership and to contribute our framework to its approach,” said CSCCE’s Elena Montoya, Research to Practice Lead for the ECE Workforce Center.
Read more about the ECE Workforce Center here https://cscce.berkeley.edu/blog/cscce-is-core-partner-in-new-national-early-care-and-education-workforce-center/.
