Early Years Inc

T.e.a.c.h. Early childhood:the t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood north carolina scholarship program provides unique educational scholarships to child care professionals as a strategy to improve the education, compensation and retention of north carolina's early care and education workforce. Scholarships are structured using four components (scholarship, education, compensation and commitment) and are available to facility based early educators including program administrators and home based professionals working in north carolina and to individuals who perform non-direct service functions on behalf of young children and families throughout the state's early care and education system. These scholarships enable eligible personnel with the opportunity to complete coursework leading towards credentials and degrees at 56 of north carolina's 58 community colleges and 20 colleges/universities. Participants are expected to increase their education by completing a minimum number of credits annually and in turn are given raises or bonuses in recognition of their achievement. More importantly, participants are required to commit to the early care and education field, their employing sponsoring program or sponsoring organization for six months to one year. During fy 2023-24 the t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood scholarship program met its goals for improving the education, compensation and retention among its program participants in north carolina and produced positive outcomes as were proposed. The t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood scholarship program provided core, comprehensive scholarships to 2,163 early educators, program administrators, home based professionals and early care and education system specialists in 93 of the state's 100 counties. Successful outcomes were produced in the areas of increased education, increased compensation and retention. For example, on average, teachers who participated on the program's most utilized scholarship model, the associate degree scholarship program and successfully met contract requirements, completed on average 16.5 credit hours of formal education, experienced a 13.6% increase in earnings and had a 5.3% turnover rate. 64,680 children were cared for in a setting that supported at least one recipient on a t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood scholarship. The provision of scholarships enabled t.e.a.c.h. Recipients to enroll in 20,343 credit hours of education at the state's community colleges and selected universities.

Federal, state & local initiatives:100% of regional lead ccr&r agencies indicated that assistance received from the r&r council was helpful and indicated that the ccr&r council has enabled the improvement of r&r services. All 14 regional lead agencies successfully implemented the following three ccr&r core services: consumer education and referral, professional development and technical assistance. The birth-to-three quality initiative (formerly the infant-toddler enhancement initiative) achieved 74% of its three year (fy 23, fy 24 and fy25) goal of 700 statewide practice based coaching participants by providing 234 individuals pbc in fy 23 and 286 individuals pbc in fy24. Under the b-3 quality initiative, 3227 child care providers participated in training sessions representing 161% of the established goal of 2000 participants for fy 24.under the statewide core services during fy24, 87% of parents responding to follow-up surveys indicated that they chose 3, 4, or 5 star care. Nine of the 14 regions reported that at least 89% of the customers surveyed responded that they chose 3, 4, or 5 star care, with 8 of 14 reporting that at least 98% of parents indicated they choose this level of care. Statewide 92% of parents responding to follow-up surveys during fy24 indicated that they used quality indicators in their search for care. Ten of 14 regions reported that at least 91% of the customers surveyed responded that they used quality indicators in their child care search. Statistical data from dcdee indicates that 70% of all children enrolled in licensed care in the state of north carolina were enrolled in 4- and 5- star care. This is a significant percentage of the state's children in higher quality care. Furthermore, at the conclusion of fy24, only 5% of children enrolled in licensed child care in north carolina remain enrolled in 1- or 2-star care.other triangle ccr&r services: professional development and support services: - there were 215 professional development workshops conducted for 1,766 (unduplicated) 3,102 (duplicated) child care professionals in the triangle area. - there were 549 in-service hours received by the attendees. - there were 51 early educators trained in ceu topics completing a total of 630 continuing education hours (ceus)/56.5.0 in-service credit hours. - 96% of educators attending workshops reported feeling confident in their ability to apply the knowledge and skills gained through training. Child and adult care food program (cacfp):- early years serves as a sponsor for cacfp, a federally-funded program which provides financial reimbursement, training and technical assistance to child care institutions for the provision of nutritious foods for children in their care. - cacfp served 42 child care homes in the triangle area. - there were 121,283 nutritious meals and snacks served this year meeting the usda meal patterns to an average of 220 children per month from diverse populations. - there were 108 monitoring visits made to child care programs to review records, observe meals and provide technical assistance as needed. Technical assistance services: - the technical assistance team members provided support, coaching, and educational resources to 687 early childhood teachers serving a total of 1421 children from birth to age 5.child care program scholarship services: - all durham county smart start contracted scholarship funds were fully utilized, for a total of $2,860,589. - scholarships supported 655 children who attended child care facilities with an average star rating of 4.9. - 420 children were jointly funded through the durham county nc prek program. - 81 children received scholarships through the early head start set-aside fund. - 21 children receiving services had documented developmental needs. - 24% of children lived in families where spanish was reported as the primary language. - $65,862.11 was provided through the orange county regular scholarship program, supporting 6 children, all attending 5-star child care facilities. - $74,870.38 was spent using donated funds and contributions from united way for child care scholarships. - $683,779.19 in arpa build babies durham funding supported 120 children with an average star rating of 4.8. - unc child care financial assistance program: - $86,512.58 supported 10 children of employees. - $39,003.24 supported 8 children of students. - unc students for child care scholarship program: - $335,509.17 supported 34 children. - 24 families and 40 child care programs participated in the early years, formerly child care services association annual survey of scholarship services.- 47% of families reported their children were not in licensed care before accessing scholarships. - 100% of families reported scholarships enabled them to secure or maintain employment. - 100% of recipients expressed overall satisfaction with early years services. - among child care programs that served early years scholarship children: - 100% recognized the scholarship program as an important service. - 100% agreed the program was effectively operated.child care referral services: - 3,511 families were served through the child care referral central program - total of 2,652 families received child care consumer education and referral (cer) services through child care referral central, the regional call center operated by early years formally child care services association. - 859 families received consultation services - 1,646 were durham county residents or clients - 241 were orange county residents or clients - 1,296 were wake county residents or clients - 328 were residents of alamance, caswell, franklin, granville, person and vance counties - a total of 4,243 children were impacted by these services. - 37% (975 of 2,652) of families accessed services through the agency's online referral system. - enhanced referral services were provided to 27% (710) of families served. - 30% of cer services were to families earning less than $20,000 per year. (2,090 provided income information) - cer services were provided in spanish to 293 families, 4 families received services in other languages (13% of all counselor-assisted referrals & consultations) and 21% of all families reported being of latino/a descent. - in the department's annual evaluation of families served, 496 families were surveyed. 96.6% of all families reported being satisfied with services, 99.2% reported feeling respected in their interactions with staff, and over 99.2% reported using three or more quality indicators in their search for child care.- the average star-rating of child care selected by families receiving referral services was 4.5. 99% indicated they selected a program with a 3, 4, or 5 star rated license.- child care referral central staff also conducted 17 webinars/seminars and 28 information sessions and participated in 49 community events throughout ccsa's service area.