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EYE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD
February 2024
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Honoring Black Women's Role in Child Care and Looking at the Year Ahead
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The year ahead holds both a lot of potential opportunities and numerous challenges for the child care and early education sector. While working to navigate the implementation of likely new Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Head Start regulations, we will simultaneously be encountering challenging advocacy to secure additional investments to keep valuable child care and early education programs functioning and available. All of this will be happening in the context of a Presidential election year where we will see the final pandemic child care relief resources expire. The work ahead is absolutely critical, and we are excited to partner with you in 2024 to make the most of the opportunities and proactively handle the challenges together.
This month is Black History Month—an opportunity to celebrate the significant history and contributions of Black people in this country, but also a moment for reflection and reckoning as we recognize the deep history of racial injustice Black Americans have faced. This is especially relevant for child care and early education, where Black women were at the forefront of child care development; yet, due to anti-Black racism, there is a legacy of child care providers being undervalued and underpaid. We are working hard to bring this history into the policy conversation and advocate for a different future. Read more about the history of child care and the role of Black women and our work in our featured section below.
2024 is also a year of celebration for the child care and early education team here at CLASP, as we commemorate 25 years of child care and early education policy work at the organization. This is a true milestone, and a moment for reflection and celebration on the last 25 years. It’s also an opportunity to look ahead and envision the next 25 years. Look for more information from us in the coming months on how you can join the celebration!
We are hopeful that 2024 will be a year of positive improvement for child care and early education—one of improved access, affordability, and increased investments, where equity is at the center of policy decisions. Read how our team has been working to advance these efforts below:
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Featured Updates
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February Feature: Black History Month
As Black History Month comes to a close, we celebrate the significant role of Black women in the history of child care while reflecting on the ways child care in the United States has historically been shaped by anti-Black racism and discrimination. Understanding this history is crucial to addressing the systemic inequities that exist for families accessing child care and providers participating in this system. Understanding the broader impact of intersectionality and white supremacy is also essential to creating policies that actually meet the needs of Black families and other families of color. We firmly believe that to change the future we must understand the past. Check out some of our resources below that highlight some of this important history:
Expanding Access to Child Care Assistance: Opportunities in the Child Care and Development Fund
This report by Rachel Wilensky, Alyssa Fortner, Tiffany Ferrette, and Alejandra Londono Gomez includes an important look at some examples of historical policies that demonstrate how racial and gender oppression, discrimination, and segregation continue to shape today’s state child care policies.
The Racist History Behind Why Black Childcare Workers Are Underpaid
In this op-ed, Alycia Hardy highlights the racist history behind why black child care workers are underpaid.
Equitable Discipline through Improved Data Policies in Child Care
This publication, by Alyssa Fortner, Tiffany Ferrette, and Alycia Hardy, includes a section that focuses on the history of harsh and unfair punishment of black children dating all the way back to slavery. Specifically, the brief outlines the history of inequitable disciplinary practices in child care and early education—and in the context of American society more generally.
Standing With Black Communities by Standing Against White Supremacy in Child Care and Early Education Spaces
In this blog, Alycia Hardy discusses the wide-ranging effects of the deep-rooted culture of white supremacy within the child sector, including in the child care advocacy space, and makes the case for dismantling white supremacy and centering racial equity.
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Recent Events
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Persistence: How ours and theirs define the future
On January 11, 2024, Tiffany Ferrette delivered a keynote address at the Las Vegas My Brother’s Keeper Alliance in partnership with the Children’s Advocacy Alliance of Nevada titled Persistence: How ours and theirs define the future. The address discussed the importance of equity to children’s development, how organizations can and should base their work in racial equity, and the role of decreasing and ultimately eliminating harsh disciplinary practices in building an equitable future.
Inequitable Access to Child Care: What it Looks Like and What can be Done About It
On December 1, 2023, Rachel Wilensky and Alycia Hardy presented Inequitable Access to Child Care: What it Looks Like and What can be Done About It at the 2023 BUILD Conference in Los Angeles, California. The session included a preview of new state level demographic data on access to child care assistance as well as opportunities to improve access within the current regulations of the Child Care and Development Fund.
Centering Black Families: Equitable Discipline through Improved Data Policies in Child Care
On November 29, 2023, Tiffany Ferrette, Alycia Hardy, and Alyssa Fortner presented at the 2023 BUILD Initiative Conference in Los Angeles, California. Participants heard about the history of Black families navigating child care and early education systems and policy; the racism that underlies these systems and policy; how data plays a role in structuring experiences; state examples of policies mitigating harsh discipline; and policy recommendations at the state and federal levels.
Child Care Advocacy in a Post-Pandemic Nation
On October 23, 2023, Tiffany Ferrette moderated the “Child Care Advocacy in a Post-Pandemic Nation” panel at the 2023 Alliance for Early Success CONNECT conference in Charlotte, NC. The panelists discussed efforts that advocates and state leaders have taken over the last three years and the pandemic to shift to equitable funding strategies.
Reflecting, Envisioning, and Preparing: Centering Black Families in Child Care Policy Data Strategies and Decision-Making
On October 14, 2023, Alycia Hardy and Alyssa Fortner presented at the National Black Child Development Institute’s 52nd Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC. The theme of the conference was unleashing the promise and genius of Black children and families. Their presentation focused on creating affirming child care environments that support Black children through equitable community engagement practices throughout the data process to inform policy that centers the expertise of Black families and communities in knowing what their children need to thrive.
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Media Mentions
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ROUTE FIFTY: Not all states will go off the child care cliff
“The study by the Center for Law and Social Policy found that in Louisiana, Michigan, New York, and Virginia, the federal dollars helped nearly 30,000 child care programs that serve more than 1.4 million children stay open, said Rachel Wilensky, the think tank’s senior policy analyst.”
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USA TODAY: Why You Should Scrutinize Early Childhood Educator Pathways
“This historic underinvestment in the child care system that has been ever-present intersects with long-standing gender and racial inequities,” said Rachel Wilensky, an expert with The Center for Law and Social Policy. “Understanding and grappling with that history is a really important place to start” for reporters – “thinking about who we’re recruiting into these jobs and whether we’re just sustaining these systems of oppression.”
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Meet the Team
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Meet Rachel Wilensky, a senior policy analyst on our team! Her expertise ranges from the state to the federal, especially regarding how ARPA emergency funding has impacted the child care system. Read more about her work and interests here. |
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