Minnesota Child Care Resource And Referral Network

Direct financial supports: high-quality child care requires substantial investments in certification, education, and retention of early educators. Our scholarship and grant programs focus on retaining early childhood educators and supporting their professional development. Our financial supports team has recently begun using a new salesforce data system. -t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood minnesota (t.e.a.c.h.) is a scholarship program that helps early childhood and school-age educators increase their levels of education, compensation, and commitment to the field by earning college credits and degrees. -of these, 53 (23%) self-identified as bipoc, and 109 (47%) of t.e.a.c.h. Recipients are considered rural. -14,605 of minnesota's children were cared for in settings that participated in teach. -recipients completed an average of 14-17 credits per contract. -recipients in minnesota completed more than 2,551 credit hours. -our t.e.a.c.h. Team recently piloted an apprenticeship program in partnership with the t.e.a.c.h. National office. This program supports apprentices with employment, on-the-job training, college coursework, individualized mentoring, and additional support in earning industry-recognized credentials and degrees and applying early childhood best practices in their programs. The t.e.a.c.h. Apprenticeship program engaged 32 apprentices who worked with 22 mentors in fy24. A proposal to implement a corresponding family child care apprenticeship is awaiting final approval.-reetain bonuses help supplement income for early childhood educators who have attained a certificate or higher education degree as they work to establish a career in the field. Reetain bonuses can be used for program supplies, training, or personal expenses. -we awarded 971 early childhood educators reetain grants, 462 more grants than the previous year. -of these, 18% identified as bipoc, and 50% are in rural areas (outside of the metro region). -cda awards help early educators pay for the required training, application, and renewal of the nationally recognized child development associate credential (cda). Applications are accepted at any time. Awards are distributed quarterly. -we awarded cda training, assessment or renewal scholarships, and professional development specialist stipends to 50 early childhood educators. -of these, 36% self-identify as bipoc, and 68% are in rural areas (outside of the metro region).-foreign credential evaluation scholarships are used to evaluate recipients' foreign early childhood credentials. -we awarded these scholarships to 18 recipients, the most we have awarded in one year. One of five partners completes the evaluations and helps recipients identify and increase their career lattice steps within the pd system.

Eager-to-learn: eager-to-learn (etl) is an innovative, community-based e-learning program. Its online courses are designed to provide quality, accessible educational opportunities for people who care for children. A leader in the field, eager-to-learn is built upon several decades of research supporting the effectiveness and universal reach of the online learning model. Trained professionals offer courses covering various topics on children from birth to age 12. -we supported 968 training events, with 46,001 participants completing a training event in fy24. (unique participants may be reflected more than once if they take multiple trainings). -in addition, we held 188 online training events in languages other than english, with 1212 participants completing a training event. -the online mn child development associate (mncda) and director credential (dc) programs are our most popular instructor-led offerings. During fiscal year 24, 17 students completed the mncda, and 18 completed the director credential.

Parent aware rating: the coordinating office receives funding through a separate contract with the minnesota department of children, youth & families (dcyf) to manage the parent aware rating team that provides final review and scoring for the quality documentation portfolios submitted by early educators pursuing a star rating. This work includes rigorous processes to ensure reliability and consistency in scoring. This team reviews and recommends star rating levels to the minnesota department of human services for all parent aware applicants, including those pursuing a full rating, an accelerated rating, or an expedited rating. The following programs were rated during fiscal year 24: -full rating family child care: 499 -full rating licensed child care centers: 242 -licensed accredited in the accelerated pathway: 126 -expedited pathway: 9 -tribal: 10the ratings team has also been providing input for the upcoming one-star rating changes and has continued to collaborate with parent aware for standards and indicator updates and the parent aware redesign.

Other projects:ccaoa emergency preparedness grant -this grant focuses on creating and delivering the emergency preparedness for child care programs curriculum, including training our system navigators and other staff to provide support.sheltering arms foundation grantthis grant funds a lobbying contract for the work of "transforming minnesota's early childhood workforce birth through eight." child care aware of minnesota serves as the pass-through entity for payment. The work includes increasing access to ongoing professional development and degree attainment opportunities for the early childhood workforce and strategies for increasing compensation.the child care advocates ready to emerge (care) fellowshipthis funding from the hopkins early learning center (as part of their dissolution as a nonprofit) was earmarked for the continuation of the care fellowship. An mou was signed to direct the use of the funding. A budget was created to extend this initial funding across 2021-2025. Brings together a diverse group of enthusiastic and curious participants to improve their advocacy knowledge and skills. This project is a collaborative effort across multiple organizations, with child care aware serving as the fiscal host.united way/start early funders coalitionthis grant helps to fund stipends and support for the care fellows in the 2023-24 cohort.naeyc grant this grant includes pass-through funds to mnaeyc for outreach and promotion of the unifying framework and support for the policy work of transforming minnesota's ece workforce policy development. Minnesota department of labor and industrythis includes funding to supplement the outreach and mentorship work for the t.ea.c.h. Apprenticeship program and to support development of a licensed family child care apprenticeship model.